Silver Millennium: Prologue
by Bruteaous
Summary: The foundation of an era, the planets and their own separate cultures and rulers striving to survive and make their way in history. Before there was unified peace there was civil war and chaos. This is the story of that war.
1. The Birth of a Uranian Heir

**Silver Millennium: Prologue **

**Part I **

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the characters of the Sailor moon which appear _The Dominion of Knights _& _Years of Silver Light_, but I do however own the original characters which I have created for this, the _Prologue_, and for the _Interlude_.

_** This is the first addition in a series about the Silver Millennium, their order is as follows:**_

1. Silver Millennium: Prologue

2. Interlude: Snippets from the Silver Millennium

3. Silver Millennium Part 1: The Dominion of Knights

4. Silver Millennium Part 2: Years of Silver Light

5. Silver Millennium Part 3: The End of All Things

**Chapter 1: The Birth of a Uranian Heir**

_**The Beginning of King Elieon's reign upon the moon, year 579**_

_**The Imperial City, Uranus**_

_**Castle Deagelle**_

The wind blown valleys of Uranus were densely quiet, with not a sound being uttered above the light whisper of winds stirring their sand from its resting place. This was a land of practicing warriors, never was the air so still without the sounds of clanging swords and clattering bronze armor, but it was on this day that all of the Uranian warriors of the northern half of Uranus were idly awaiting the birth of their reigning lord's child.

No songs were written or sung by the gifted minstrels upon this day in the north, as anxiousness filled the singers hearts. No great feat of architecture was conceived upon this day, no law by the northern king's body of elders was passed. Only the priests within the temples of the gods were allowed to practice their trade, as their work may spurn the gods to bestow upon the king's wife the heir he so desired.

The Moon Kingdom at this time, as a united kingdom, was not unified underneath one solid ruler and so each planet still maintained its own monarchs, clinging fiercely to their own native identities and closing their borders to all foreigners. Uranus was a great empire, of vast providences, unrivaled architecture, unparalleled speed runners, and of some of the strongest warriors in the universe. It was unfortunately also home to one of the most tyrannical of royal families to ever rule a family, who repressed and imposed harsh laws upon their people without grasp or thought. There were only a select few, whom could be christened as good rulers, and the majority of them were later classified by the Uranian libraries as weaklings, unwilling to press the common people to their limits for the good of the state.

Uranus, unlike the other planets, had two kings as its vast stretches of land were hard for one central ruler to subjugate and rule. All planetary rulers have found this difficult, but the Uranians decided to ease their burden. In the beginning days emperors ruled Uranus. As the ages passed the emperors became tyrannical and unsound, treating the people's problems that they could not understand with cruelty and brutality.

This stung at the people's hearts much as how salt stings when it is forcefully ground into an open wound. To end this, the last Uranian Emperor, the tyrant Sarpedon Tarpiea, was executed by his own guards. He left in his place his two sons Aeolus Tenous and Alastair, both of which he had intended to rule Uranus simultaneously, but the two brothers hated each other with vengeance and so they divided Uranus up into two separate parts, one for each one of them to rule: the north and the south.

The south was to be ruled by Prince Alastair and his line of descendants whom would forever follow in his wake. The north was to be ruled by Prince Aeolus and his line of descendants who would forever follow in his wake. To distinguish the now separate royal lines from one another, the two kings spilt their royal crest in half, each one taking the symbol of strength which they thought would represent them the best.

King Aeolus Tenous took the symbols of a golden hawk clutching a serpent in its talons as his family symbol, this stated that his family was always keen to snatch up and destroy evil. King Alastair took the symbols of a golden stallion arching its head up towards the heavens, this stated how his family line wished to take their place within the heavens where all good things originate.

In this time upon Uranus, both houses are just coming into their own power. King Aeolus died of old age and left his son King Bastion to rule the north. The very monarch whom now waits impatiently for the birth of his new heir in the capital city in the north.

Deep within the heart of the Imperial city, in an ancient castle of stone, the Uranian king of the north paced nervously in his palace foyer. On the other side of the castle, in the Queen's personal chamber, a baby cried unheeded as it was brought forth into the world.

Two dark wood double doors swung open and a royal servant clad in the family colors of gold and navy emerged from the corridor to greet his king. The king had stopped in his pacing and was now standing before the foyer window watching the common peddlers and villagers before his walls go about their business in their day to day routines. The Uranian king possessed a dignified air about his ways which followed him in everything he did, along with a noble appearance encompassing neatly groomed hair the color of sand and almond shaped eyes the color of the stormiest of skies.

On this particular day, however, the king appeared disheveled as his nerves about his child's successful birth were at their peak. The royal seers and midwives had been unsuccessful in their efforts in the last nine months to tell if the Queen would give birth to a boy or a girl, with the defense that the stars were not aligned to their liking, disturbing their foresight.

This created a problem. There had long ago been a law set down on the Uranian royal house hold, by the first Uranian emperor, Sarpius, from which both of the Uranian royal families are descended. It decreed that a woman could not rule the Uranian states and if one did happen to do so, death would be the immediate punishment.

So you see, the king did not wish for his wife to give birth to a daughter whom might cause their family to forfeit their throne to another whose influence might drive them from power completely. The Uranian king closed his eyes and bent his head to his chest in silent prayer, desperately praying to all of the Gods for a son.

"My lord?" the navy and gold clad servant bowed his blonde head to his king.

"Yes, Jafari? " the Uranian king asked anxiously, turning towards his chamberlain.

The servant squirmed uneasily beneath the Uranian king's penetrating gaze, but stood his ground and stood up straight and unflinching.

"The queen gave birth to a baby girl, my lord." Jafari replied grimly.

The king's expression had become grave and he rubbed his blonde bearded chin slightly in deep thought.

"You are certain?" the King demanded of his chamberlain, "Be sure!"

"As sure as the winds blow my lord, she has brought a princess into the world." Jafari answered.

An exasperated sigh was all the king gave in reply, rubbing the back of his navy collared neck in worried contemplation while starring out the window. King Bastion had not been expecting this set back. Finally his voice resurfaced, but it was wearied and shallow.

"The poor girl, cursed will be her destiny. The queen will give birth to other children. Tell me, Jafari, do you believe the next one will be a son?" the King asked his trusted seer and chamberlain.

Jafari starred out of the window beside the king searching his thoughts for the correct answer. In the back of his mind's eye he beheld a child practicing sword play with his father's guards.

"Yes, and your successor." Jafari answered with a lilt of disdain in his tone of voice, "But his rule as king will be short and unloved."

"Why?" the king asked noting with growing annoyance how his servant remained deliberately silent towards his inquiry, "Speak seer."

The good chamberlain would rather hide the truth from his king then face execution for perjury Jafari cleared his throat and placed a smile on his face turning towards his king.

"Do not trouble yourself about that matter now, my lord, for all will be explained in due time. Now, in the present, you have a daughter; but the question is what to call her." Jafari spoke leading his master on to a different train of thought.

The king remained stoic and still, searching through word combinations of his native tongue to see which one would fit this great blemish born on his name. Searching for a degrading name, the King Bastion was swept up with pity for his child and therefore settled for a more noble one instead.

"She shall be called Regelle." the king stated firmly.

Jafari's blue eyes widened. Every Uranian royal born to this family over the last two hundred years had taken foreign names and yet the girl was to be given a name in their native tongue instead. Even more surprising, the king had given the girl quite a distinguished name.

"But, my lord…that name means to 'proudly serve', surely-" Jafari began in protest.

"Silence seer! Take me to see my wife." the king ordered, leaving no doubt to his request by the seriousness of his tone.

"As you command, my king." Jafari said bowing as he remembered his place, "This way."

The Uranian queen lay in her chambers, surrounded by linen navy blue blankets and white silk sheets while her long golden hair fanned out around her; cascading in soft waves down he pillows. . Her demeanor was weakened with exhaustion from the birth of her child as her mind kept fighting for consciousness just as sleep was relentlessly fighting a battle to take her.

In her arms lay a sleeping infant, smaller than most, but no less as strong as any other newborn babe. Her head was lightly dusted with hair the color of sand illuminated by the sun and her skin was white as freshly fallen Mercurian snow. The tiny child was curled up silently, protectively held in her mother's embrace.

"My little star." The queen cooed to her sleeping child, the baby's golden hair catching the light of the candles which kept the room alight. "How perfect you are."

"Lucilla?" a voice questioned at the chamber door.

Recognizing the voice of her husband, Lucilla called out, "Come in, Bastion."

The Uranian king entered his wife's private chambers. She smiled up at him as he entered, but frowned almost fearfully as she took in his grim expression.

"Bastion?" the queen wearily questioned her husband, finding the fact that his unwavering gaze rested on the child in her arms disturbing.

"It…the child is a girl." Bastion stated and did not waver.

"Yes." the queen replied, her pale blue eyes hardening as her protective arms tightened around her sleeping babe.

Bastion seemed lost. He made a movement as if to turn sharply to his left, but then spun back around to face his wife, his navy blue cloak swirling and then coming to rest over his shoulder as he did so.

"The Gods curse us and you cling protect fully to that abomination." the Uranian king fumed, seeming angry while holding in the depths of his teal eyes an aura of great doubt and insecurity, which were not often traits of the king . "What may she yield me? She, by her very gender, cannot be an heir. To marry her off would not lay us any further fortune accept for to lose a daughter and gain a king to claim the throne for his own family, disregarding our own. What can she possibly bring me that could be worth while?"

"Joy." The queen replied softly, appealing to the insecurity in her spouse's eyes while trying to dispel the doubt which lay there. "She will love you with all of her heart, as any child loves their father. What abomination is there in that?"

"The abomination recognized only by culture and condemned by society." Bastion replied, his continuing resistance to his wife's words stemming from a feeling deep within him, "She will love me if I treat her as a daughter should be treated, that is for certain. I am no fool. She will love me yes, but that does not secure this family any place in our world."

"This world is sanctioned by love." The queen said smiling slightly as she gazed affectionately down at the infant child in her arms, "The people bend to love, simply because it is more powerful than they themselves are. Young adults live for the chance to feel love's grace. Children rejoice in their parents' love, their naïve innocence proving more prudent than any wise man in the matter of their emotions."

"How can you deem a child as wise?" the king criticized as he used one arm to push aside his navy cloak as he sat down on a wooden stool beside his wife's bed.

"Because what they feel in their emotions they hail as the truth." the queen replied reaching out with one hand to stroke Bastion's cheek in a soothing gesture, "The world does not yet hold sway over their decisions enough to influence them in the ways of what is certain by society and of what is thought lost or without hope in culture. They know only what is certain in their own hearts, believing in any emotion they might have enough to pursue it into being. This is wise because it is truth, after all, what is truer than what is born of human hearts? Nothing outside of our hearts is certain in this world of ours, not loss, not succession, not war, nor peace.

"To that end, nothing is certain about this child. How is it that you could decide her own fate for her when your yourself have not seen it? How is it that you know she is an humiliation to your crown if your have not yet seen her quality of life? She may prove more a sign of hope than anything else has on this planet." The queen continued gazing pleadingly at her husband. "My point is Bastion, we have seen many things in our lifetime, the destruction of chaos by means of war, the birth of the immortals on Pluto, the reign of the moon, the bringing of life of earth; but none so strong as the love we feel in our hearts. As rulers, we have experienced so much in this universe where as what we have not promoted is the strength our own hearts. Whatever decision you make concerning the child, let is be born of your heart and not of your mind."

Bastion's teal eyes shifted from unyielding to completely uncertain, as his golden eyebrows knit together in prolonged thought.

"Remember, my love, only with love in toe can we truly transcend one step closer to heaven." the queen whispered and smiled softly, remembering the first date she had attended with him. "Do you remember it?"

Bastion's heart eased a bit, a rare smile warming his features, "Yes. You had asked me why, if my mother did not approve, would I still desire to love you and I had said, 'Because with you I feel a step closer to heaven.' Times seemed simpler then. "

"When looking back at events in time it always seems as if they are simpler because we are looking back on them." the queen replied.

The Uranian king cleared his throat as the smile disappeared from his face and he became stern again.

"The child is ours, and we shall raise her as our own." Bastion stated firmly. "But she is not to interfere in any political affairs. For if she does so in our government's sight, then the penalty is death."

The queen nodded and leaned over to kiss her husband affectionately, a hopeful demeanor to her features.

"I swear to you, Bastion, she will make an excellent daughter." the queen smiled, her voice hopeful as she spoke, "All she needs is the chance to live."

The Uranian king nodded his head and smiled letting his gaze fall upon his newly born child as he reached out a gruff, sword worn hand to lightly brush through the thin strands of golden hair upon the sleeping princess's head. "I will give her that, and I promise you Lucilla, that I will raise her with the same affection as if she were my son."

The queen smiled, as she looked into her husband's teal eyes she saw truth and the promise of a happy future. That was all she really wanted. This life, he baby, and him. Yes, this was to be the start of a happy new life together, nothing could hinder that now.

* * *

**Author's Note: **There have been some changes made to the first chapter, but not huge ones. This may sound confusing, but my story is set in such a way that chapter two actually occurred before chapter one, so it is a look back upon an event which has already taken place and which the readers have never encountered before. Most of my chapters happen this way, as I like to recall the events of the other main character's childhood at the same time as I do Regelle's, although their childhoods took place at two completely different times in the story. When reading it simply remember that the events of chapter two are a prerequisite to chapter one. Thanks! R& R! 


	2. Born Out of the Depths of the Sea

**Chapter 2: Born Out of the Depths of the Sea**

_**The Beginning of King Elieon's reign upon the moon, year 570**_

_**The sea of Poseidon, Neptune**_

_**The Vessel Alteron **_

It was a dark night, but not frightening or macabre in any way. It was in fact a night for celebration. Fire of all different colors and tinges exploded in the sky as the explosive rockets we set off from the deck of the royal vessel the _Alteron_. The royal three master was truly a work of art, with all of her ivory sails filled to their seams with the nightly winds abundant energies.

The emperor of Neptune sat upon his wooden throne, as his sailors and mariners danced and made merry upon the deck below him. His dark sapphire hair was windswept and as unkempt as the waters of the tides and as were his eyes in the same fashion, as deep and unpredictable as the seas themselves, scanned the deck for some familiar figures. There in the center of the deck near the base of the main mast their sat the emperor's young brother, Prince Taranis, upon a stool watching the dark horizon of the sea off in the distance while others danced around him to uplifting tunes of the violins and flutes.

_Why is it that out of all of those upon this boat who sing and make merry, my brother is the only one not among them? _the Emperor thought as he leaned his head upon his hand, weathered from days at sea in his younger years. This celebration was being held in honor of the king's brother after all.

Prince Taranis' wife had only recently given birth to their first child, a baby girl, whom had only been born one week ago. The emperor had ordered celebrations upon the departure of the royal vessel despite the fact that he was journeying to attend diplomatic meetings on the isle of Pella and also despite the fact that his brother's wife had died in the birthing of the baby girl.

Prince Taranis had grieved more at his wife's demise than he was overjoyed at the birth of his child. Throughout the festivities, the young prince had moped about, the posture of depression filling his limbs. The Prince was Neptune's foremost adventurer and mariner. Never before had the he abandoned the chance to dance and yet here he was sitting slumped and very heavy hearted instead.

The emperor removed his inquiring gaze from his brother and toward the sight on the deck below him. Sitting upon two barrels and conversing excitedly, were two of the women whom normally served and cooked all the meals on the royal vessel. They turned and smiled politely as two approaching sailors disturbed their conversation.

A young sailor, no older than in his late teens removed his tattered black sailor's hat and wrung it with his hands nervously as he looked down upon one of the women whose eyes were

"Um…Excuse us misses, but we…Brian and I, that is…we think you ladies are very pretty, that is…we were just wondering if you ladies would like to come…out onto the main deck, that is…and…and," the stuttering young man was nudged forward a little by his indigo eyed companion of the same age, "dance with us." the green eyed young man finished nervously as he tousled his short ebony hair with one of his hands while his cobalt haired companion nodded his head up and down approvingly.

The young woman the nervous sailor was addressing was gazing up at her new suitor, choicely biting her lip as she tried to decide whether to dance or not. The young man was tall and well enough looking, but his nervousness worried her.

"To dance or not to dance, that is the question." The young woman's companion, Anna, feigned dramatically as she put her hand up to her forehead in a theatrical gesture.

"What?" The cobalt haired young man remarked as both of his eyebrows knitted together in confusion and his mouth formed a perfect circle in surprise.

The young woman first addressed giggled slightly and stood up, extending her hand to the ebony haired young sailor, "Ann and I would love to dance with you two." the woman nodded to her companion who stood up also.

The two sailors stood up a little straighter and with a spring in their steps as they led their dance partners out onto the main deck where a small ragged band of musicians were playing folk songs upon their violins and flutes and whatever other instruments they carried.

An older sailor, perhaps in his thirties, jumped up onto a box carrying a half full wine bottle in his hand.

"Hey boys!" The man yelled enthusiastically as he struggled to keep himself balanced upon the barrel top. "Let's have a song!"

Yells of approval sprang out from the crowd who had stopped dancing and who were now excitedly jeering for a song.

The drunken sailor on the barrel waved his hands ravenously for silence, his balance wavering dangerously as he did so, " And who would we be if…if we didn't ask our dear old Railey to sing it for us! Old man Railey, would…you do us the honor of a song!"

A lively old man ran up to the barrel and stopped just before it, as the drunk man on top of it lost his footing and dropped behind the barrel with a slight yell. The crowd cheered as the old man began dancing, his feet poised and light, his arms alight and flailing and singing.

_Her ma still tries to keep me at bay,_

_But that never stopped us rolling in the hay._

_Oh! Eh._

_My heart sure cried when we had to say goodbye,_

_My mind reeled as I heard that cherished sigh._

_While her mother tried to beat me nigh._

_Oh! Eh._

The men danced and sang along to the old man's familiar tune as the violin and accordion brought the cherished tune to life. Prince Taranis sat slumped over his stool leaning his chin on his arm which was held up by his knee. The prince was not in the mood for the festivities continuing on around him.

_Look at them all so gaily dancing and singing,_ the prince thought in disgust, _no one would ever have guessed that their princess had died only weeks ago._ Then he felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder. Taranis adverted his gaze upward and recognized his elder brother standing behind him.

"It does not do well to dwell on the past, Taranis." the Emperor stated bluntly, "Forget and live on, those are the ways of the wisest men of our world. It would be prudent to let go of all of you have lost."

"You speak as if you were a wise man and yet you know nothing of loss!" Taranis pushed the heavy hand on his shoulder away coldly. "You know nothing of death's cruel grasp. Nothing of the pain of loss. Nothing of the abstraction of everything you hold dear. Nothing of the absolution that comes with feeling all of your hopes and dreams slip away beneath your feet. You know nothing."

The Emperor cleared his throat loudly, stared his brother sternly in the eyes and said, "You are my brother, yes, but I am also your Emperor and you shall treat me with respect. What right have you to defy an Emperor?"

Taranis removed his gaze from the Emperor's stern eyes and turned it to the Badge of Standard which hung upon a golden chain strung around the ruling royal's neck. He reached up and held the amulet, heavy and golden in his hand. Engraved upon it was the sea god's trident surrounded by a sea serpent, mouth agape. Taranis looked from the pendent to his brother's stern face and then he ripped the pendent from its chain, severing the golden link which had held it in place with a clank.

The sailors stopped in their merriment and turned to their Emperor whom was glaring at his younger brother, a light akin to rage burning in his blue eyes.

"As always I have to live in your shadow, brother." Taranis said bitterly, "Too long have you overshadowed me. Too long has your legacy haunted my ambitions. Perhaps you are not deserving of your status, not deserving to wear this pendent."

The Emperor stepped forward, "Do not degrade my reputation in the presence of my countrymen, Taranis."

"The humiliation is not yours, it is mine." Taranis said. He dropped the royal pendent onto the deck with a thud. "The experience of ruling a planet has made you more prudent than I had expected. I am only venting my misfortune out on you because of my grief and for that I apologize."

Taranis gazed around him and took in all of the amazed expressions and agape mouths that were poised in his direction. Letting out a deep breath, Taranis turned around and walked towards the Captain mariner's cabin, his cabin; in defeat.

The Emperor bent over and picked up the pendent which had fallen on the deck surface and looked around him at the sailor who were still watching him in bewilderment.

"Go back to your festivities." The Emperor ordered, "Start up the music, continue with the dancing, minstrels play!"

The music started up again, this time at a hurried pace while the sailors wearily began to converse amongst themselves. A few of the more light hearted sailors and mariners began dancing again as if nothing had ever disturbed them in the first place. The Emperor returned to his wooden throne up the stairs above his brother's cabin on the Quarterdeck. He placed a hand upon his brow and held the bridge of his nose in an attempt to put an end to the throbbing in his head.

"Like a wolf among sheep." The emperor commented as he let his hand fall from his forehead and gazed out over his sailors, dancing and laughing once more, "A prince must learn to conquer his grief as a wolf conquers a herd of sheep or else his path in this life will be paved with sadness and pain. What then could he hope to offer his only surviving child? Loneliness and fear too. His ways must change, that much is certain, or the fate of his family will die as his wife did."

The emperor leaned his head back and slumped down in his seat, "Whatever shall I ever do with him? He is the people's hero as he is the most beloved mariner and adventurer upon all of Neptune. He must be disciplined, that much is certain."

"Uncle would make a very useful ship." a little boy wearing blue garments and a cloak of deep blue and a circlet of gold a top his head raced up to the emperor, "Whenever he becomes disobedient you can send him out to the sea and when he tires of doing that, then you can call him home."

The Emperor laughed heartily as he bent down and picked up his small son in his arms. "I thought we already did that."

The little boy's shinning face suddenly became worried, the light from his marine blue eyes fading slightly, "Papa, what is wrong with Uncle? Why is he sad?"

"For no reason you need feel concerned about." The Emperor assured his young son. "It is an adult problem, Mariner."

"But why?" Mariner asked with an innocence that belonged to the age group of children alone, tears bordering on the edges of soft cerulean eyes. "Why can I not help him?"

It was not hard to gather from this display that the young prince and his uncle were very close and that the boy was not faring well with being alienated from Taranis. The emperor noted that from the moment his son had been born, Taranis had taken to being in his company well. He would treat the young prince as more of a younger sibling than his nephew, easing the fact away that Mariner was an only child.

His brother had always had a childlike and unique temperament, but over the years as the storm season began and fierce tempests raged over the waters of Neptune, Prince Taranis had been beginning to display some interesting characteristics. For one, he had become increasing irritable and restless from, the emperor had guessed, his being confined to dry land and not being able to sail freely upon the sea as his heart desired. Taranis's wife, however, enjoyed this short time, as while her husband was at sea she hardly saw him and now she could spend every waking moment with the prince she adored.

Taranis took solace in his wife's company, but he could not steer his mind away from the mistress who held both his heart and his every waking consciousness: the sea. Within the month, Taranis had been informed that his wife was with child and nothing could have made him happier, than to be a young father, but fate did not see things his way. He was a father indeed, but without his wife and partner to help him.

"What made him suddenly angry, papa?" Mariner asked.

The emperor decided to indulge his son and play along with him as if it were a game, "Oh, I do not know, it just hit him like a rock from the sea…with the speed of lightening."

As the little boy's eyes widened and the emperor's laughter filled the air, a sound like barrels rolling across a cobblestone street sounded and a flash of light shot across the sky. The dancing and merrymaking stopped as the storm came.

The watchman on duty called down from his post on the main mast, "Storm coming! Tie down the sails! Holdfast the helm!"

The sailors on deck set about their tasks and the waves battered the sides of the ship, causing it to bounce and groan. The winds were tearing the sails from rift to rift, as the wind soaked the deck and the uniforms of the sailors running to their posts. The emperor had taken his son down to his brother's cabin in safety and had begun calling out orders.

The top men climbed the treacherous heights up the masts and began to stretch themselves out across the slippery ropes upon which they stood. Two men sat precariously upon either end of the topsail log, bending down and tying ropes around the bunched up sails as to get them out of the wind. The harsh rain belted their faces and the raised winds assaulted them relentlessly as they struggled to tie the sails down securely and still get down from their positions to stand safely on the deck.

Two men lost their balance upon the slippery rope and plummeted to the sea. Suddenly the main topsail was struck by lightening and split right down the middle, half of the mast falling into the sea and taking all of its top men with it. The wreckage itself was heavy and was causing the ship to lean dangerously to one side and take on water.

As the ship began to flounder, Prince Taranis emerged from his cabin with his nephew asleep and covered in a navy wool blanket, testimony to what he had been doing for the last hour. He had been trying to sooth the young boy to sleep so that if they did die he would not have to be awake to face the horror of death.

Many of the sailors were holding onto the masts or sides of the boat. Others were hanging, without much hope of rescue, from the topsails where they had been working diligently to save them.

A uniformed officer holding onto a rope for leverage as the ship leaned, called to his prince, "Sir! We are loosing her! The wreckage is pulling us down to meet the waves, we will not survive this!"

The prince looked around for his brother as he stumbled from rope to rope trying to stay on balance. Then spotting his brother he called out to him. The emperor hold onto the mast as his son was handed to him. On the opposite side of the floundering boat he had had the crew prepare a small skiff for him and his son.

Taranis lead the way and laid the child into the swaying boat. Then he turned pleading eyes to his brother, "I apologize, the better man shall live this day, I only hope she realizes that same fact with you raising her as a better father than I could ever have been. "

With that last statement, Taranis pushed his unwilling brother into the boat and cut it loose. The small wooden skiff landed in the ocean waves, struggled to stay upright, and then righting itself. The emperor clung to his sleeping son as they drifted farther and farther away from the floundering ship. Finally with three final flashes of lightening the other masts collapsed and the ship floundered completely, leaving behind in the stirring waves only wreckage and waste as the sea claimed its prize.

The waves tossed the surviving skiff mercilessly, causing the emperor to cling tighter to his only son. Lightening illuminated the wind barren dark blue sky and thunder rumbled the heavens with the force of the gods. It was done. A horrible fate for one of Neptune's most noble of men.

The mist from the waves spit across Triton's face and the salty sea air mixed with the salt of another kind: his tears. The sea was, at times, a cruel temptress which destroys the thing it most loves to compensate for a greater good. The emperor wept bitterly then, as a child would at the loss of a toy, for his lost brother, for his lost crew, and for his now parentless niece: Entarais

They had spent one night at sea and were found in the morning by a large fishing ship, its triangular wine colored sail contrasting with the dark blue of the rolling waves, as the Emperor and his son remained clinging to the small boat they were in, the emperor's son still soundly sleeping. Not another soul had survived the sinking, not even Prince Taranis, the once resilient and infamous mariner of Neptune gone; lost to the furry of the sea. The Emperor ordered the ship to return to the Isles of Isabella.

"There is one very important task I must complete before I return home." He had said, not starring any of the fisherman directly in the eye, but gazing seemingly interested into the light blue of the sky above his head.

The Emperor's son, Mariner, sat on the deck still wrapped in the navy blanket; trying to absorb the news of his uncle's unfortunate death. The little boy appeared shaken and sniffled, hiding his tears from all on looking sailors.

They dropped anchor just off shore of the island of Cresbo, the center island in the archipelago that made up the Isles of Isabella. They lowered a skiff down into the shallow water carrying only the Emperor and one sailor to row him to shore. The aqua waters licked the boat he was in as it banked on the sandy seaside. Triton stepped from the skiff his armored body making tiny noises as he stepped. His hair color matched the sea and shone in the brilliant sunlight as he gazed at his destination, squinting his cerulean eyes to do so.

It was a small house on the slopes of Rous. It was a humble abode of stone, not as small as that of a commoner, but of a Mariner; of a captain of men. The roof was of clay shingles and the windows were of glass set into iron frames. A tiny herb garden, furnishing the occasional spices for a meal was off to the side, the smell of jasmine beckoning to the visitors below. It had been Taranis's dwelling place, where his infant daughter awaited a father who would never return to care for her.

The emperor tore his eyes from the welcoming house and fixed them on his rower ,whom clad in blue and was starring into the aqua water, watching tiny silver fish swim in small schools around the ivory bulk of their skiff.

"Massimo." Triton called, immediately startling the navy haired young man and gaining his full attention. "I will transcend the slopes alone, wait here for my return."

The rower nodded as the emperor removed his heavy woolen cloak and the cuirass of iron which covered his chest to reveal a simple linen tunic below. It would be a somewhat steep climb up the slope and he did not need the extra weight his armor and cloak created to off set his balance or else he may also never return home. Triton knelt down and began unbuckling the leather straps of his greaves from around his leather boots and of arm guards, discarding them in the same pile as his breast plate and cloak. He tightened his leather belt around his lithe form pulling his loose fitting cobalt tunic closer to his body.

He then stood up and walked over to the base of the rocky slope. Triton took one deep breath and began to climb the slope. He slid without silliness as a large stone gave way underneath his bottom foot while he was half way up the slope. He fell, but caught himself as he slid, with strength worthy of royalty; pulling himself up again. Finally, Triton emerged at the top of the slope, fresh sweat steaming his brow and a new sense of fulfillment living in him that he had not been aware he would feel.

He stood away from the ledge of the slope, gazing over the stony way he had just climbed, before walking, with an exasperated sigh; to the stone house just paces away from his position. He turned and jogged up to the stone house, standing before the wooden, iron hinged door. Triton leaned his head against the stones of the house, the warmth from his sweating forehead against the coolness of the dry stone. With the desperate and exhaustion fit for a weary traveler, Triton rapped his knuckles loudly against the door. He continued knocking faster until he noticed that his knuckles had shed blood over the splintered wood of the door's surface. Finally the door swung open and a frightened woman with silvering hair the color of the sea starred at him.

"Yes sir, what may I do for you?" The woman asked still slightly weary of the man before her, but somewhat put at ease by the fact that his clothing showed his status to be of noble birth.

"I…have come for…my…niece." Triton stammered as he still preceded to capture his breath from the long climb he had endured up the slope.

Recognition registered on the elder woman's face and she dropped something heavy she had been holding in one hand, presumably the object she had been intending to beat off an offending intruder with, behind the door with a clang.

"My lord! By the gods' praise, my lord!" The woman cried overjoyed as she threw her self at the emperor and embraced him tightly. The overjoyed and over protective middle aged woman squished the emperor's head to her bosom uncomfortably and wept. Had the emperor not been on the receiving end of this flood of emotions, he would have found the sight comical, "Oh my lord! You would not believe the trouble I have seen. Oh, the horror of it!"

"Deloras!" the emperor exclaimed trying desperately to pull himself from the suffocating grip of his brother's servant. "Truly, I have no doubt as to the misfortune you have suffered, but I require use of my muscles to climb back down the slope and air to be able to return to my court and rule there."

The woman pulled back from him and regarded him with a suspicious look, her tears ending.

"There now, Deloras, as I was speaking to you of beforehand, I have come to-oomph." The emperor was sharply cut off by the wailing woman servant as she threw her arms around him again.

"You have changed so much, my lord! Can you not even spare the time to speak with old Deloras for but a mere moment." this she said scolding him as she stared down at the struggling man in her arms. "No notes. No forewarning of your visit. No requests of meals. No respect for educate." The elder woman shook her head with a sigh, "What stock these royal men come from today. No manners, no respect for their elders, no remorse for impulsive actions. Is that not right, my lord?"

"Yes!" the emperor croaked out hastily.

"Good boy!" the woman praised as if she were speaking to a small lap dog as she freed the stunned and suffocating emperor from her grasp. "Come in, my lord! Come in!"

The woman grabbed the emperor's sleeve and ushered him into the house, pushing him the rest of the way through the doorway with a shove. The emperor's gaze landed on the wood planked floor and the large iron handled pot laying lopsided in the space behind the door. The woman followed his gaze and smiled.

"One can never be too cautious in these times, my lord." Deloras replied to the unspoken question as she shut the door and latched it behind her. "Had you not been the ruler of these lands, then I am afraid that you may have found me very unwelcoming to encounter, indeed."

The emperor nodded wearily, while nodding his head to himself as if he were agreeing with the turmoil in his mind. Then he gentle touches on his hand.

"Oh, my lord, look what you have done to your hand." Deloras stated, the emperor not having to gaze up at her to notice her surprise for it was apparent in her tone. "I will mend it for you."

Triton had not really noticed the injury after it had been made for it had gone numb, but at its mention, the afflicted area now throbbed as a small stream of blood flowed freely from the small gashes. She led him to a table and pushed him down to sit in the chair next to it while lay his hand gently on its polished wooden surface. Deloras then scurried off in another direction and had returned not one moment later with a corked blue glass bottle, a wooden bowl, and a hand full of cloth bandages.

Triton took this time to take in his surroundings. They were different than he had expected, then again, his brother's woman servant was different than he had remembered also. She was more motherly now, scolding and embracing. He surmised that she had been changed by the sudden loss and then sudden addition to the family. That of course did not make the news he had to bring home today about his brother's untimely, easy tidings to relay. This would not be easy.

"Deloras?" Triton asked as the elder woman began cleaning his wounds with the clear elixir from the blue bottle in the wooden bowl where she had placed his hand.

"Hmm?"

"Do you know why I have come on this day to see my niece?" The emperor asked, his mind swimming with different types of word combinations on how to answer her.

"No. I can only assume that Lord Taranis has sent for you to watch over the babe. The gods only know, what type of suffering he has been through since Lady Bella's death. He wailed like a child lost in a storm, as if his very soul had been wrenched from him and for a time, he completely ignored the fact that he had a child at all; until his wits came about him and he spent one day bonding with the babe, before shipping out to sea. Did you come to fetch the child for him?" Deloras asked pouring the stinging liquid over his hand.

"No." Triton replied gazing straight into the elder woman's now very attentive eyes. "Last evening the ship on which my brother and I sailed, floundered and sunk in a storm; claiming him along with the lives of all of my crew."

There was silence between them. Shock had registered on Deloras' face, but then registered as sadness as she bent her head lower to inspect the tiny abrasions on Triton's hand.

"That is terrible." Her voice was a petrified whisper, but what she feared, the emperor could not place. "How awful a price the sea has demanded of us, to take its greatest mariner to a watery grave before his time."

She wrapped his hand in the dry bandages, without saying one audible word, not willing to speak on the matter. Feeling pressed for time, Emperor Triton felt compelled to finish his dealings here.

"Where is my niece?" Triton asked.

Deloras stood quickly, squeezing Triton's hand painfully as he cringed, leading the way to a room off to the side. It was well lit from the sun streaming through the windows. In an ivory crib, lay a small baby. Triton cocked his head incredulously, _I do not remember Mariner ever being that small as a babe._ On her head were light strands of auburn hair, _that trait belonged to my mother's family,_ Triton thought as he smiled at the thought.

"She is so small." Triton whispered as he stood at the base of the crib watching the tiny infant sleep peacefully.

"That is what Lady Bella said, that is…" Tears sprang to the usually carefree woman's eyes. "Before she passed on."

Triton only nodded still gazing at his niece, an instinctual urge to protect filling him as he watched the vulnerable babe sleep. He had always been convinced that Mariner would be his only child, but this small baby, Entarais was her name, would need him now; more than ever. How could he turn not fulfill his brother's dying wish? Even in childhood, Triton had always been the protective sibling, trying to deflect harm away from Taranis as much as possible. That was no longer the case. His brother had given his life to save him, and all he had asked in return was for Triton to raise his only daughter. How could he deny him that?

A light touch became present on his arm, causing Triton to lean forward a bit.

"Where will you take her?" Came the old woman's timid inquiry.

"To my court, to be raised as one of my heirs." Triton replied firmly, no questions in his resolve.

"Take good care of her, my lord. She does not deserve the hand dealt to her." Deloras said tearfully. She then clung to the emperor's arm and wailed, "Do not let her be harassed for being an orphan, my lord! You have no ideal to the cruelty of children. Keep her safe within the palace walls, to a place of safety. I could not bear it, if I heard she had to suffer!"

Triton tried desperately to dislodge his arm from within the woman's grasp, but to no avail. She instead held on to him tighter, squeezing the life from him.

"Listen, Deloras I will personally see to the child's upbringing myself so do not worry yourself about her well being, I assure you it will be taken care of." Triton reassured trying to pry the wailing woman from him.

She only wailed louder, causing the entirely awkward moment to escalate to one of the purest embarrassment.

Indigo clad sailors sat on the edge of the large fishing ship, anchored just off shore, awaiting the emperor's return.

"Do you see him?' One anxious soul asked.

Another used his hand to shield his eyes as he gazed off at the shore, "No, he is still up on the cliff."

"No, there he is!" A young cabin boy pointed to the skiff being rowed slowly towards them, the emperor and a tiny marine wrapped bundle in his arms held within it.

The small boat rowed up to the side of the ship as its occupants grappled to climb the rope ladder which had been lowered toward them. As the emperor reached the top of the ladder he handed his precious bundle to the captain who held the tiny child with reverence. The baby woke with a start, deep cerulean eyes opening halfway and staring astonished up at the unshaven face hovering above her. Captain Sejanus turned his gaze back up to Triton, whom was now standing beside him.

"She is so small." Sejanus commented, light blue eyes gazing back to the child in his arms with awe. "I have four children of my own and yet never have I seen a babe so small as this one, nor one so light to hold. It will be hard for one so small to make their way in this world. Take good care of her, my lord."

"Sejanus, have more faith in me than that." Triton reprimanded with a light heart and a smile as the captain expertly handed the small child over to the emperor, "I have gotten enough of that type of speech from the child's maid."

Sejanus chuckled and then turned back to the task at hand, "Make ready to depart!"

The sailors scrambled across the deck, rushing to their tasks. The lieutenants were yelling orders to the sailors, pushing them into their responsibilities leaving no room for any argument. The sails were let out, the wind filling them quickly. The vessel began on its way from the island set in a straight course for the isle of Atlantis, the second largest island that made up the archipelago of Isabella, not a day's sail from the island of Cresbo they were leaving.

The day at sea was monotonous. The crystal sea was calm, a token of good fortune that their journey may come to an end without incident. He would come home on sparkling waves. His wife came to greet him at the docks, greeting both him and Mariner with living embraces, but to the small child, she glanced at her wearily.

"Triton." The emperor's wife, Rhiannon, asked curiously. "Who is this?"

Triton walked up beside his wife and handed her the sleeping child, then leaned closer to her so only she would be able to decipher what he was going to tell her, "Her name is Entarais and she was my brother's daughter. Taranis died when the _Acheron_ capsized in a storm at sea."

The queen gasped in shock, but did not loose her hold on the precious bundle in her arms.

"By tomorrow morning this news will be no secret, but for now let it stay between us." Triton said, "I swore to my brother, as the ship was sinking, that I would raise his only child as my own and so I have taken that responsibility upon myself. All of the arrangements have been made, she will be our daughter from this moment on."

Rhiannon nodded, her gaze softened as she regarded the child in her arms. Perhaps, this one would not be so hard to raise as Mariner was. The Neptunian queen smirked at the fond memories flowing through her mind of a little prince who took particular pride in terrorizing the servants of the palace. And so it was, that the Emperor and his wife took in small Entarais and raised her as their own daughter. She lived, learned, and grew within imperial walls, but she was not sheltered. Her uncle would not allow her to be.

Neptune was a democracy and therefore the people ruled. In fact, it was the common people who elected the royals themselves. At any time or moment a royal could be overthrown without consequence and another put in their place. Because of this, a royal had to be beloved in order to preside over Neptune. Triton's family was the longest ruling imperial family of Neptune, for they had been in the people's favor for over one thousand years. In order to remain so popular, the royals were raised from birth to serve the people. If a disturbance or dilemma is reported to the royal court, the royals themselves ride out to deal with it personally. The disturbance could be something as large as a public unrest or something as small as a family dispute, but none the less, the royals tended to their people's problems personally.

Entarais had done this many times. She would ride out with her uncle and his guards to mend the people's troubles and had learned the skills essential to holding the favor of people: charisma, a jubilant sense of humor, and a knowledge of when to hide emotions from those in your company. Entarais had become exceptionally good at the latter of these skills, and used it often to allow herself the privacy she so desired. But this sort of privacy did come at a price. It allowed her to hide her emotions, to a point that it became very difficult for others to discern what it was that she was feeling. Such was often the tragic case of royalty. So young, and yet she was already subject to the royal condition. There was no normality for the royal children, for there was always expectations to live up to, precedents never succeeded, but not to be broken by any youth or monarch alike.

She grew up with the knowledge that to become a true ruler in the eyes of the universe, she would have to sacrifice her individuality to become like them, but in order to rule her people she had to maintain her charismatic charm as well as some element of uniqueness in her personality, other wise her people would write her off as drab, dull, and not the right type of royal for them. Although Entarais knew that other royals were, or seemed to be, content with their lot; she could not help but want something better. She wanted adventure and a life that was morally irresponsible by royal standards, to drop all restraints and live life as everyone else did. Perhaps she could join the local tower guard, become something that would have to fight to protect. No, her uncle, although lenient with her, would not allow that. She was also aware of this strange urge within her to help others, to see that they lived freely, as was their birth right. But how? To accomplish all of that, such a life was extraordinary even by royal standards.

"Entarais." Triton's voice broke her from her ponderings as she sat on a rock on the cliffs of Antos which over looked the waves of the azure sea, beating against the rocks with vigor. "What are you doing?"

"Watching the wave roll by." Was the whispered answer as Entarais pulled her legs to her chest and rested her chin upon her drawn up knees, "Uncle, have…have you ever wanted more than what it is you have in your life?"

Triton was almost thrown off balance by the question as he knelt beside his niece in an attempt to better hear her words, "No. What makes you inquire about such things?"

Entarais shook her head, refusing to meet the emperor's questioning gaze and instead decided to watch the sun set over the horizon, "I do…I do not know."

Triton kept his thoughtful gaze upon his niece for a moment longer. She was certainly an odd child, often withdrawn and confined upon her own behalf to her chambers. She was strong for someone her age, for she had already learned one complete hardship of being a royal: that one must learn to be lonely. Neptune was a free planet, but not an anarchy. No where is its laws was it stated that a royal may act irresponsibly or carelessly for their own self indulgence, as the emperor's of Uranus once had. The Neptunian royalty had learned from their mistakes. Their whole governmental system was a complete opposite of that of the other twin planet, being that on Uranus laws were enforced with beatings and executions, which often caused its two crowns more trouble than they could handle. Neptune was not like that. For disobeying a law, once may be fined or thrown in prison for a night, but no further punishment would ensue and amazingly, Neptune sported less national crime because of it. Uranus was a planet of strict oppression of the common people where king's ruled supreme, but on Neptune the people clearly ruled and it did not matter if the royal heir was a male or female, for the firstborn on Neptune always received the crown.

"Well, let us move to other matters." Triton cleared his throat as his voice became more raspy from overuse, "You have always been educated in the palace alongside Mariner, but as you well know, there is a time a youngster's life when they must learn what it means to travel the galaxy on their own, to pick and choose their own friends and to take their destiny into their own hands. Granted you are still young yet, but I think it is time." Triton cleared his throat again. "Your education is limited so long as you stay in this castle, for there are some things about this galaxy that you cannot learn from books and papers, but from your own personal experiences. I am sending you to the other planets for the remainder of your education."

Entarais nodded solemnly, cerulean eyes darting a glance at her feet before turning to that of the uncle. She knew this day would come. "When will I come back home?"

"The gods only know." Triton replied laying a comforting hand on his niece's much smaller shoulder, "Though your education will ensue for a few years, it will eventually cease and when it does I do not want you to feel compelled to rush back home. You need to spend some time living within the cultures of other planets, experiencing life the way their citizens do." The Neptunian emperor's expression became woeful,"I think you will find that there are many differences in the way we live our lives and in the way the peoples of other planets live. There are many injustices that you will see, maybe even experience, which may unsettle you. Our world, although at peace at the moment, is not a perfect place. It is very important that you come to realize and deduce this for yourself, Entarais, for your judgment later in life will depend on your experiences. I will not hide that fact from you. I have never shielded you from the harshness of reality and this new experience will be nothing different."

Entarais nodded this time hastily. An unsettling feeling was growing in his stomach. She was afraid. Entarais had always been one to wander off on her own, even once signing onto a merchant ship as a able seaman, before her uncle had found out; but never had she left for another planet and certainly not on her own.

"I know this is daunting for you, but it is something you must do." The emperor said as Entarais shrank down into herself, pulling her knees closer to her chest, if it was at all possible. "You will depart tomorrow morning for your first destination. You tutor is a Plutonian liberal named Anshar of Ampuria, a most revered scholar in his native land. Treat him well and do as he instructs. Listen well for, as one of his formal pupils, I can tell you from experience that he never says a word without meaning, but he loves children so you have nothing to fear. " Feeling awkward with nothing more to speak to his niece on he promptly cleared his throat in the thick silence that hung around the two of them like a fog. "Be ready at dawn. Good luck and may the gods go with you."

Entarais remained silent, having nothing to add to the conversation. Triton stood and readied himself to walk back along the shore to his castle, but he was stopped by a slight sound like the coo of a dove. He looked down to seen one of many silver tears making its way down Entarais's cheek.

He immediately engulfed the tiny girl into a tight hug, her body shuddering from painful sobs.

"My little fish, what is wrong?" The Neptunian emperor asked as he rubbed the child's back soothingly.

"I do not want to do this alone. Perhaps I cannot do this alone." Entarais whispered as her fears escalated and her sobs subsided. "What if I fail. What if I cannot become the person the court expects me to become."

"My dear girl." Triton soothed. "You should be inspired to do well in life, but do it for your own satisfaction, not for the court's. If nothing else, do what your judgment tells you is right and follow what your heart tells you. No real greatness is ever achieved by living a life solely for others. I know what I tell you confuses you, because we as royals, are taught from a very young age to place our lives in service of the people; for the good of the people. But my darling girl, in doing only what is expected of us and going no further, you are not living at all. My point is Entarais, live life for your own satisfaction, for whatever you choose to do; our family's love and support will go with you. Do not worry so about failure, because failure is like beauty, for it is only discernable in the eyes of the beholder. Any one of our planet's many artists and musicians will tell you that. Are you feeling better now?"

Entarais pulled out of her uncle's comforting embrace, drying the remainder of her tears with her sleeve. The emperor also stood, brushing the dirt from his knees.

"Now, I wager that the first one of us to reach the castle walls will be allowed the honor of eating dessert before dinner." The playful glint in Triton's eyes sparkled as he prepared for a race. "We race under only one rule: do not tell your aunt I condoned this behavior."

Entarais smiled, "Or that you started it."

"That too." Triton chuckled, "Now ready set g—Hey!"

Entarais had sprinted off before the final count, laughing as she sped out of her uncle's reach. Triton took off running after her as the two enlightened souls raced to the castle walls, the sun setting over the watery world of Neptune for the evening.

**Author's Note: **This gives Entarais her background and explains her close family ties to the Neptunian royal family. I hope this chapter was able to gain your interest. I also hope you enjoyed reading it. R & R!


	3. Our kingdom

**Chapter 3: Our Kingdom**

_**The Beginning of King Elieon's reign upon the moon, year 575**_

_**City of Anteium, the Moon**_

_**The Royal Palace**_

The walls were of the whitest marble, shinning in all of their glory, the rays of the outlaying sun brightening the corridors through the windows with their own soft light. It was a new morn, a raw day, yet all was not well. The royal council was in session, already an hour into debating problems between the planets.

The serenely lit corridor was silent compared to the chamber adjoining it. The council chamber was all, but silent with the voices of the disgruntled diplomats and objecting ambassadors clashing as if they were upraised swords loudly within its walls. The ambassadors and diplomats of every planet sat in balcony boxes around the room, similar to what one would perceive in that of a theatre, with not one seat resting on the chamber floor, but attached to the wall.

In the middle of all of the balconies on the centermost wall, their was situated a balcony of marble etched in gold and curtained in red. As the ruby curtains were pulled back by two servants clad in white and red, the king and queen of the moon were revealed, sitting gracefully atop their separate thrones. Each monarch was richly garbed in white satin and linen with the golden mark of the moon shinning upon both of their foreheads beneath their jeweled crowns.

"To order!" The ambassador of Pluto called out over the confusion of arguing voices, "To order!"

The obscuring mirage of voices which had hung over the chamber cleared, only echoing faintly before dying completely away.

"For your direction my king, the council has prepared a number of propositions in your absence, they wish to present to the crown addressing our fair kingdoms many tribulations, beginning with the trade relations with Earth to bring an end to the rivalry which is already forming between the green planet and the remaining inner planets." The Plutonian ambassador continued, "So it is obvious to see, sire-"

"Why should we conform to meet their wishes!" the grey haired ambassador of Jupiter forcefully questioned.

"Their peoples are too diverse and their ruling bodies to unpredictable to cooperate with." Victorious, the ambassador of Mars argued, rubbing the black goatee of his chin harshly.

"What of the high king's kingdom on Earth?" Saturn's young and inexperienced diplomat, Junus, asked. "Elis, is it called?"

"We all know about the kingdom of Elis located upon the isles of the Earth sea known as the Mediterranean." Aaron, the ambassador of Neptune replied, "And of their high king, Epeius. They wish-"

"Traitor!" Parmellion, the young diplomat of Mars bellowed, "Consorting with the enemy and then promoting their meager wants before this council."

"We are not at war, Parmellion." The Lunarian king silenced calmly with a wave of his hand.

"But my lord, they have insulted our great kingdom." Parmellion appeared injured as he continued to protest, allowing his youth get the better of his judgment, "Defied the very Planetary Alliance for which we have so labored."

"What is the manner of their defiance that only you can see, Parmellion?" Capriconus, the aged Ambassador of Venus inquired lightly.

The Marian diplomat snorted in distaste as he slouched ungracefully in his seat, "They lead armed caravans to accompany their merchants to our trading posts on the desert continent and almost every where else for that matter. The trading agreement was settled under non-militarized terms, no weapons whatsoever. One would assume that the leaders of Earth would respect these terms laid down by the planets for safe inter planetary trade."

"Where do you gather this information?" King Elieon questioned harshly, for if there was to be any unrest between his ambassadors then there should be a just cause.

"Under what false accusation is this?" Nestor, the ambassador of Mercury inquired.

"None, I assure you, Nestor." The Marian diplomat sneered in the direction of the Mercurian balcony. "Everything I have said has been confirmed by a merchant of mine who was trading for silk at one of our desert trading posts. He and his companions were approached by a caravan, mounted on both horse and camel, carrying spears and swords; their wrought shields nailed to both sides of their trade carts to protect their precious cargo. My merchants barely escaped with their lives. It that is not defying our peaceful terms enough, then I cannot tell what is. It I am the only one whom sees the infringement here they you all must be blind-"

"That is enough, Parmellion." The Lunarian king silenced, "We do not need anymore of your crass words. The information you have already given us will do."

"Sire." The Marian diplomat bowed his head in recognition of defeat, "You are very prudent and I concede to your wisdom." Parmellion sighed deeply and sat up in his seat, his features dark and begrudging.

"Perhaps, we should send messengers to the leaders of Earth. This is a most probable misunderstanding-"Nestor of Mercury rationalized, but was interrupted mid sentence by another more domineering voice.

"No! The time for half hearted peace treaties and futile negotiations are over, Nestor." The ambassador of Jupiter argued. "We laid down the rules of conduct long ago, they should be understood fully by now. It is time for action. I motion for a vote to put a halt to all trade negotiations with the leaders of Earth."

"Sagittarius is right." Parmellion spoke up, his impertinent vigor renewed, "We cannot falter now. The leaders of Earth have violated the terms, we should ready our troops for battle."

"Not all of us are so quick to declare war as you are, Parmellion." Gilgamesh, the ambassador of Uranus stated calmly, "I for one, wish for peace in the face of my planet."

"Quite the proposition coming from a planet who supports two faces: Tyranny and Oppression." The ambassador of Mars shouted outright, earning himself two glares from the Uranian box at the snide comment and rumbling laughter from some of the other boxes.

"I agree with Gilgamesh." The ambassador of Saturn decided, "Peace is the more favorable outcome compared to war in these situations."

"Are you all blind?" Parmellion shouted, his rage mounting, "Can you not see? The rulers of Earth are planning to gain strength with force of arms. They will take up weapons against us and drive us from their borders, when all our good King Elieon has promoted is peace and prosperity between the planets. They will make a mockery of all of his efforts. Why do you deny the truth?"

"We do not deny truth in this council, only speculation." Nestor replied.

The council broke into a light rasping of speaking voices contemplating all that had been said which seemed to echo loudly in the marble chamber.

"To order here! To order!" The Plutonian ambassador shouted again, "This senseless bickering is not settling anything. Let us listen to the council of our king, it is his decision that will carry over in diplomacy. What do you propose, my king?"

The Lunarian king sat leaning to the side of his seat, resting his head on his hand. He had watched the entire argument and was not in anyway sure of what course his decision would take. The argument of both sides made sense to him. He understood the possibility of a threat from the peoples of Earth, for they were always hostile towards all they could not understand and an empire in space connected by roving metal shuttles they had no concept of, was hard to understand. But he also understood their hostility to a point for any excess of foreigners arriving at any moment they please, might be a little unnerving. There was another possibility. The people of earth were often at war with one another. Perhaps they were protecting their trading caravans from an indigenous enemy, but why then would they attack the Marian traders? It was a most definitely planned attack.

Or could it have been the Marian traders who panicked and then advanced on the armed caravan? It was a known fact that Marians were often presumptuous and high tempered.

"Parmellion?" King Elieon inquired, lifting his head from his hand. "Who unsheathed their swords first in animosity, the Marians or the Earthlings?"

Parmellion shifted uncomfortably in his seat as all of the eyes of the council landed on him, "I…I cannot remember, my lord. The skirmish seems years away from where we are now."

"Ironic, your memory was not so unclear in recalling the incident on earth only a moment ago." Gilgamesh spoke up, a great grin upon his features.

"You stay out of this, runner!" Parmellion seethed, "This is none of your concern."

"Parmellion!" The Lunarian king shouted sharply, "Who attacked first!"

"Why should it matter now!" Parmellion's temper was fanning into an uncontrollable fire. "The sound fact is that they appeared armed, where as my people were scantly so, and drove us back to our shuttles without warning nor cause. That is the threat we are here to discuss. Think about the trading regimes of your own planets, gentleman, are you willing to sacrifice your merchants' lives to these heathens!" The Marian's pointed tone caused all of the diplomats and ambassadors to wince suddenly as he continued, "What risks are you willing to take? How far will you venture to risk the lives of your people for a mere profit?"

"Now, now Parmellion, do not be so hasty in your judgment." Nestor reprimanded, "Earth is a cornucopia of natural resources and the gods only know that the resources of our native planets are severely limited. If we cannot continue trade with Earth then our people will starve and precious commodities will cease to exist. This we know through tedious calculation and study-"

"Study." Parmellion mocked with a satirical smile, "Calculation, books, and papers, that is all you know of. You do not know of the toils of labor on sunburned fields, nursing precious crops dying of thirst. You know nothing of sacrifice and hardship! Nothing of starvation and plague! All you know is your calculations and your books. You know not the pain of death and suffrage, but I do. I grew up in the lowlands of Mars, where the sun is hot and unforgiving. Where water is nowhere to be found but in the putrid marshes and deep within the ground, so deep that digging for it costs more lives than dying from lack of it. I know the sorrowful companion to death, for it has followed me at my side throughout all the years of my life. I demand you all, do not invite death and grief so freely into your homelands. We should not have to endure a threat to our supremacy while trading on that little blue planet. We are a great empire and we can be greater if only we defend what we have and find other means for what is needed."

"What other means do you propose?" King Elieon asked rubbing the silver goatee on his chin in thought.

"Open up trade routes with the other galaxies." Parmellion said, "They are different, yes, but they have commodities and resources to offer us well beyond that of earth. Capriconus, does not your planet trade with the galaxy of Frucros?"

Capriconus shifted uneasily beneath the Lunarian king's now penetrating gaze, the tone of his voice becoming nervous. "Yes, but only sparingly. We are not brazen enough to conduct full trade negotiations with Frucros because of the obvious risk of trading over so far a distance, but their system does offer us the same amount of resources as earth."

"But is it not true that if you were to exploit their resources more, they could offer you twice the natural resources of earth?" Parmellion asked pressing the Venian diplomat for an answer.

The Lunarian queen suddenly stood up, gathering the attention of the entire assembly including her husband.

"Gentlemen, may I be permitted to speak?" Serenity asked.

The assembly was silent, awaiting the queen's words. Serenity smiled a serene smile. Not many royal women could stop the procession of a council delegation with one single fluid movement, but Queen Serenity could.

"I propose that we move the final decision of this council on to a later date so as both diplomats and ambassadors will have ample time to think over this issue thoroughly." Serenity stated.

"I concur." Nestor agreed, "We are all civilized men. We do not need pandemonium to interfere with educated decisions."

"It is agreed then. This council will postpone its decision until ample time has been allowed to reach a final verdict." The Lunarian king decreed.

That was final. Whatever the king ordered, was carried out. The council members began to dispel, their murmuring voices speaking of either descent or approval. The king and queen were the last to leave the council chamber, Serenity holding Elieon's arm as they walked down the corridor.

"That was a virtuous decision you made, Serene." Elieon said, "I am not sure I could have been brazen enough to do the same."

"You are too kind, my love." Serenity replied laying her head onto her husband's shoulder. "Do not over cast the importance of such a small action."

"Small though it may have been, it no less important than say a proposal for peace." Elieon replied.

"You make too much of things, darling, too much." Serenity said as she blushed slightly from the heartfelt compliment. Then an emotion of a different kind appeared in her eyes and she became rambunctious and excited like a young school girl. "Have all of the arrangements been made for Seda's birthday celebration?"

"Everything is ready. My servants only await their queen's command before they let the festivities commence." Elieon's happy expression matched the excitement in his wife's eyes. "I was glad I was able to clear my schedule for the next week so that I can be there for the parties and balls to ensue. I want to be there for her and for you as well as for the kingdom."

Serenity grasped his hand affectionately in her own, "Our kingdom."

Elieon smiled and brought the soft ivory hand to his lips to kiss it as they continued walking down the hall. Nothing, not a problem in the whole world destroying the peace the two of them felt at each other's side.

"This is pathetic, you know." Parmellion griped impatiently as he walked down the corridor quickly. "He lets a woman make his choices for him. How does that show his dominance as our high king?"

"He clearly states his authority in a different way than the king of your country does." Sagittarius defended as the Jupiterean ambassador accompanied the young Marian diplomat down the hall, "Besides. On the moon woman hold a more prominent status than on your planet. Who knows, perhaps one may someday rule supreme as the high queen. I do not think that the role of the queen in these matters should bother you, for her supreme rule is not the major concern. The major concern of this kingdom is to protect and guide the earth, while maintaining a sort of peace between the planets themselves."

"High king?" Parmellion huffed arrogantly as he continued to walk at a quick pace. "He is no great ruler. I will prove that to be true in time."

Sagittarius narrowed his gaze suspiciously. "What are you planning?"

Parmellion turned to a Lunarian servant who was standing by a door with his hands resting behind his back, ignoring the Jupiterean ambassador's inquiry. "Prepare a shuttle for my departure. I will leave for Earth in half an hour."

The servant bowed and left hurriedly, his white robes swirling about his feet as he scurried away.

Parmellion turned to his companion, who was eying him wearily and smiled. "But you need not worry yourself. I merely have business to attend to on earth that is all. I will cause no threatening unrest with the high king. Be at ease, my friend. No trouble will come to you, I assure you." Parmellion's demeanor became cheerful as he slapped Sagittarius on the back heartily. "The preparations have been made. This will be a most wonderful feast will it not?"

"You must know, I do not approve of whatever shady dealings you are planning to conduct on earth and if word reaches my ears that you are conducting affairs with are altogether troublesome, then I am afraid that I will have to inform King Elieon." Sagittarius was weary of the cheerful façade, for never before had he seen an expression of such mirth on a Marian's face without cause.

"Of course." Parmellion replied lightheartedly as his demeanor became lighter still. "I was wondering, since I will not be returning to the deport station until later tonight, that I might offer you my personal carriage as transportation."

To this Sagittarius agreed, "Thank you."

"Anything for an old friend." Parmellion said merrily. "It is waiting just outside of these doors."

They walked only a short distance before they reached a red carriage, all sides boxed in solidly except for a small door at the side. The door was opened by an outside servant as the Jupiterean ambassador stepped in, but before the door was shut, he quickly turned to face the smiling Parmellion one last time. "Thank you."

Parmellion nodded enthusiastically as the Jupiterean ambassador sat down. Sagittarius noted that he was not alone in the carriage, but that two guards sat in seats between him and the driver, one sitting up with the driver behind him and one sitting across from him. He suddenly became uneasy as he realized the somber expression of the man sitting across from him. _Why have we not started moving?_

"Why are we not moving?" Sagittarius asked, then he prepared himself to turn around and question the driver, but he suddenly felt a strong arm encircle his neck in an iron grip; holding him at bay. "What are you doing! There is a mistake, I—"

But before Sagittarius could finish his sentence, a silver dagger was plunged deep into his chest and he collapsed with a painful groan and one last gasp of tortured air before his body went limp in his restrainer's arms. Ebony eyes stared through the iron grated opening in the door on the side. His gaze was somber and solid, blinking only once with finality before turning his gaze from the carriage completely. The two assassins climbed out of the carriage, one carrying the feet of the lifeless ambassador, while the other carried the majority of the dead man's weight hauling his broad shoulders.

"Dispose of the body." Parmellion ordered sternly. "Let no one know what has transpired here. Make sure no one finds him."

"What of his family, Lord Parmellion?" The assassin asked as he placed the bloodstained knife back in his scabbard with one hand. "Should they not be notified?"

"I will take care of that." Parmellion replied pointing to the pale body with contempt. "You only worry about your well being and take care of this!"

The assassins feverishly carried on with their tasks and fled that area. Parmellion walked up to the carriage and bent on one knee, dipping two fingers into a puddle of warm vermillion blood pooled on the carriage floor. The warm liquid was sticky in his hands. He leaned his head back slightly and took one step up into the carriage.

"Clean this mess up once you reach the carriage house." The Marian diplomat commanded, the implied threat not hidden in his voice. "If I find one trace of blood on this floor when you pick me up for the station, you will not make it out of the driver's seat alive. Do remember that." The driver nodded anxiously shaking in his boots as Parmellion stepped out of the carriage and stood beside it apathetically. "Now carry on."

The carriage rode away as the black horses ran at a fast gallop. Parmellion stood in his position, calmly studying the ground at his feet. A tiny drop of crimson blood lay in the crack between two cobblestones, its true dark color lost as the sunlight reflected off from it.

"Unforgiving subject, politics." The Marian diplomat mumbled almost silently as he pulled a simple wooden pipe from a leather pouch on his belt and pulled a twig from a nearby tree, lighting it in a torch on the wall. He then took it and used it to light the dried leaved he stuffed with his pipe basin. He used his boot and smeared the small drop of crimson across the ruff surface of one cobblestone. "Especially for those with loose tongues."

"Unfortunate business is the spilling of dangerous blood." Parmellion stated in the midday silence. "Unfortunate business."

**Author's Note:** Political stress and injustice in the Silver Millennium. Who'd a thought it? I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, however grim it may seem. R & R!


	4. Childhood & Responsibility

**Chapter 4: Childhood & Responsibility **

_**King Elieon's reign upon the moon 576**_

_**Ida, city on Pluto**_

_**A clearing on Temhai hill**_

The midday sun was warm over the heads of the children gathered in the clearing. Each child was of one of the different royal families and each wore clothing of various different styles and colors, representing these cultural differences. Many of the children here were of the lower nobility, not directly descended from the ruling kings and queens of their planets. The children had been called to assemble here to await the arrival of their teacher, the great Plutonian philosopher, Anshar, whom their parents had sent for to instruct them.

A small girl with dark hair and tanned skin was dressed in the deepest of reds, spotted with upraised designs of golden thread. A pair of worn leather sandals adorned her feet, allowing the small appendages their ability to feel the heat of the day. She was a young princess of mars, no older than six, but she behaved in a manner which out lived her years. She sat with stillness, which would have made any tutor proud, while leaning silently against a withered tree; its once green leaves now turning brown with the changing of the Plutonian seasons.

Not far from her, gallivanting around in circles while chasing the frightened prince of Saturn, ran a small noble daughter of Venus; golden hair streaming out from behind her along with her long amber robes which were tied with a jewel adorned leather belt tightly about her lithe waist.

The Mercurian prince, Orion, was studying rolls of parchment in the ancient script of Pluto, of course on a planet where the civilization is immortal; the knowledge to be read and known is vast. The perfect place of comfort for the studious prince of Mercury. He lay nonchalantly sprawled out upon the ground, with no care to soiling the front of his periwinkle blue tunic in the dirt, his parchment laid out around him to gaze at and recite.

Anna, a lower princess of Jupiter, sat poised on her haunches above a small orange lizard she was intently following as it crept along the ground. Wildlife had always peaked her interest. As a child on a very large planet, the range of strange creatures and unconquered wilds were what she dreamed every day of exploring, but her parents had not the patience for her dreams; and had sent her to the immortal planet for study, not for fantasy. But so far, the tiny brightly colored lizard was peaking her interest more than any subject of academic study.

The prince of Saturn, well out of reach of the clutches of the Venian princess, fell back tiredly onto the ground tiredly beside the prince of Mercury, startling the young scholar slightly.

Entarais sat on large gray rock, her head resting on her up drawn knees as she leaned down and began writing her name in the dry dirt of the ground with one finger, the flowing script of her native land vanishing as the breeze brushed loose grains of sand over it. She was six summers old and according to her uncle, she was now old enough to begin her education on other planets rather than being confined to the teaching of the stuffy palace tutors of Neptune, which her cousin Mariner seemed to despise so much. Her auburn hair was short, no longer than a common soldier's. Her aunt had argued against the cut saying that it framed the child's beautiful face too much and made her appear as if she were a boy, but the emperor had said that it was a style of convenience, as it would prevent her hair from falling in her eyes while she practiced art or music. It was a short style, not longer than that of most Neptunian boys.

Entarais also wore a pair dark blue breeches and a waist long tunic, in the style of Neptune's royal guard. She had long ago taken to playing in trousers and breeches because they were easier to run and ride in, though she occasionally wore dresses when dealing with royal matters. The emperor had not objected to this. Whatever made Entarais comfortable, within limits, he consented to. For example, just this same year he had condoned her sword fighting training with his royal guards, saying that a noble woman must always be prepared to defend her honor and dignity.

Emperor Triton's wife had objected to sending the child away so abruptly, but Triton had insisted that had his brother survived; he would have wanted his only child to be well versed in the cultures of all worlds so that she could survive in them without peril. This came as no surprise to the young Neptunian princess. Her uncle was always doing things of this nature. Always trying to raise her in a fashion he thought his brother would have wanted. Entarais often wondered if her uncle had not held himself to such standards, how would he have raised her? She often compared her uncle to the father she had never known, but had been told great stories of.

Entarais let her knees slide down from her chest and allowed her booted feet to touch the ground as she leaned her elbows on her legs, feeling more comfortable now that she had thought for a moment.

He was apparently some great adventurer and a noble prince, gifted with love of both people and the sea. Sometimes Entarais wished she had known him or could have met him, but fate was fate and you could not right the wrongs of the past. Entarais glanced up from her stupor hastily as a laughing princess of Venus fell into her lap. The Neptunian princess said nothing, she simply watched in bemusement as the small Venian girl trembled with laughter. As her giggles resided, playful cobalt eyes glanced laughingly up to meet deep cerulean.

"Sorry." The Venian princess said as she slid off from Entarais' knees and came to sit on the ground in front of her, "I am Alexandria, the daughter of Phaethon, ruler of the region of Phaedra in the foothills of Pallas and the niece of King Alexander of Venus." the girl giggled while making no attempt to hide a smile showcasing the perfection of a mouth full of white teeth, "Now that you know me, who are you?"

"I am Entarais, princess of Neptune and niece of Emperor Triton of the same planet." Entarais stated quietly, almost inaudibly. It was not hard for her to understand the Venian princess as Entarais had been taught basic Venian long ago.

"Oh, well, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Alexandria replied holding her hand out to be shaken, "Sorry, for the abrupt disturbance. You must think me unreliable."

"No, not at all." Entarais said with a genuine smile, shaking the hand offered to her lightly before dropping her own lightly back to her side, "It was actually quite amusing to watch. I did not know Sinis of Saturn was capable of running at that speed."

"Now, now children calm down." a low voice gently reprimanded as the scholar made his way up the hill, the garnet cloak, double clasped about his shoulders to represent his status as an educated man of stature, swaying in the warm breeze with him as he walked up in his polished leather sandals. He was garbed also in a deep purple tunic, which seemed to cling to his thin form in the heat of the day.

Warm days like this one were few on Pluto, considering the fact that because of their distance from the sun. Pluto had eighteen months in its calendar year, unlike the calendar of the Moon which was only twelve months to a year. Winter was the longest season and lasted twelve months in the plutonian calendar while spring and summer only lasted for three months each. Even then warm, sunny days like this one were rare. Dark purple was the color of the aristocracy on Pluto and represented someone who was either born into power or wealth or someone whom had achieved the same status throughout the course of their immortal lives. On Pluto you could tell the status of a person simply by the color and fashion of the clothes they wore and this was definitely a man of great reputation in his native land.

"Gather around, children! Gather around in a circle!" he called out as he sat himself down on the ground crossing his legs at the knees, as was the Plutonian custom. "That's it children, a round circle."

_What a strange little man, though I cannot yet judge him fairly. _Entarais thought as she rushed to do what she had been told. The children obeyed and sat around the strange man in relative silence. The dark haired scholar smiled, he did not seem surprised at the children's willingness to obey. After teaching children for over a millennia, he knew that this was only a result of their curiousness about him, once the initial shock wore off they would be fidgeting and losing their will to pay attention to what he was telling them to such things as the thrills of their imaginations or the travels of tiny insects across the sand beneath their feet. Yes, children only had an attention span of so long.

"Now which one of you would be so kind as to tell me where your palace tutors left off in your studies?" Anshar asked patiently still smiling almost enthusiastically and chuckling deeply as if he were an overgrown child, "I am afraid that your parents were a little vague as to where your native educations ended."

An awkward silence seemed to hang between them as the children debated whether to reply to him or not, finally finding restraining his answer very difficult, the prince of Mercury raised his hand slowly.

"Ah, yes." the scholar smiled seeing the genius behind the youth already taking fledgling form in the small prince, "Prince Orion, where did your palace tutors leave off in your studies?"

"Me, sir?" the prince asked, shyness coming to him naturally, "Well I may have ended a few chapters ahead of most my age, or at least that is what my tutors tell me."

"Where were you in your personal studies then? How many chapters ahead of the others?" the scholar asked.

The young boy's cheeks began to redden, "Um…a fair few, sir. I ended my studies with the literary account of when the higher powers dispelled chaos from our galaxy and I had begun translating the story into basic Jupiterean when I was called away."

The princess of mars, Lucretia, who had remained silent until now; uttered a small sound of disbelief, "I have only just finished translating the story of Cecrops, the first immortal, into a different tribal dialect. The rest of us are hardly as far as he, it is unnatural."

Orion's embarrassed blush darkened and he watched his tiny thumbs twiddle around in nervousness as Lucretia's steady glare never left him.

"Silence now, stop your bickering." Anshar scolded, "That is common. On Mars the different tribal dialects are not taught to children until they reach at least five years of age. On Mercury customs are different. Out of political necessity, the Mercurians begin teaching their young the languages of other planets and peoples at the tender age of three and so it comes as no surprise that Orion is further along than the rest of you. Now setting where you left off aside, let us begin a new chapter, one that I am sure none of you have covered. Today were are to ponder the worth of myths and legends and what it is they teach us about the lives we live."

The children groaned and sighed, but Anshar held his ground and began reciting his lesson.

"Now we know from the peoples known as Ampurias that their myths greatly influenced their perception of life for they taught them the merits of life and death or represented it in a way that every person from their nobility to their serfs, could understand." Anshar said taking from a pack of animal hide, a long scroll. He sat on his haunches and unrolled the aging parchment, using stones to weigh the corners down to the ground.

It was a map of the various providences and major cities of Pluto. Whenever Anshar taught a lesson to a new group of children he always used his people as an example and since he was a resident of the providence of Ampuria, he had decided to use the Ampurias peoples as his model. Pointing with his golden ringed forefinger, Anshar outlined the borders of the tan providence on the map to the children.

"Like the story of Ilus, the Ampurian hero who fought in the Laocsian war against the barbarians of Laio. He was not the most common hero in all of mythology, but he was proven more human than divine. Ilus' was fraud in the way that he was vengeful and not selfless in any way. He fought because he loved dealing death to others and the only reason he was thought of as a great hero was because he killed the assailant of his king, but to meet his own ends. He was human, with his own unique views on the world we live in. The enduring question is what did his life and death truly teach us about our own morality," Anshar chuckled repentantly rubbing his chin, "I mean your morality?"

"That we humans are vengeful, vindictive creatures who would always wish to be selfish over being selfless." Lucretia answered without hesitation.

"Go on?" Anshar prompted resting his chin on the back of his hand.

"Well, being selfless is never easy, that is why all of the heroes of legend and myth are so respected." Lucretia finished. "Because they, by pass standards we ourselves hope to reach."

"Very good!" Anshar praised clapping his hands. "I can see your father's sharp wit in you, child. I am sure I will never cease to amaze me at future studies. Now, if what Lucretia tells us is true, then why do the peoples of Ampuria count Ilus as one of their foremost heroes?"

He waited patiently, scouting the circle for the timid answer of one of his unsure students, but the answer never came. Not one of his budding young scholars seemed to want to put forth an explanation.

Lucretia of mars was glaring across the expanse of the circle where she was whispering to Entarais who had diverted her attention from the lecture at hand, to accommodate their conversation. Orion of Mercury was staring at the ground and holding his knees up tightly to his chest as if afraid to speak his mind publicly, although Anshar was certain the quiet boy knew the answer. The prince of Saturn, Sinis, was laying on his back beside Orion, hands clasped behind his ebony haired head as he stretched out on his amethyst cloak; deciphering the shapes of the thin pink Plutonian clouds. Anna of Jupiter was sitting up against a tree beside Lucretia, playing with a small red beetle that had captured her attention during the lecture by hopping about in the dust of the ground.

Anshar sighed to himself, _short attention spans, indeed_. But he clapped his hands loudly, undaunted by their seeming disinterest in his topic of study.

"None of you know the answer, hmm?" Anshar questioned glancing at each one of the royal children. "Well then, we will simply have to ponder the question together to realize its proper answer." He stood and walked in slow circles around the map, keeping his eyes on his pupils while making gestures with his hands. "Ilus was hot headed, the perfect example of a selfish person and yet he captivates the hearts of people wherever his name and story are told. Why would that be? What were the defining characteristics that Ilus himself possessed?"

This time, Alexandria, now very interested in what her tutor had to say; raised her hand and waved it wildly in the air, barely managing not to hit Entarais in the head as she did so.

The elder man appeared revitalized at seeing one of his students so enthused by his teachings, "Yes! Alexandria, what were Ilus' most defining characteristics?"

"Selfishness and pride." Alexandria answered her smile beaming, betraying her own pride in the confident answer.

"Correct!" Anshar shouted slapping his hand against his knee excitedly. "Every human possesses these base characteristics, so what does this prize commonness tell us about Ilus as a hero?"

Entarais spoke aloud, her auburn eyebrows knitting together in realization , "That he was human."

"Excellent!" Anshar grinned, his satisfaction with his students growing with every correct answer. "But why, if humans so value the selfless nature of the hero, would they credit a selfish person who was at their same moral level, as a hero above their station?"

"People always identify with what they can understand." Sinis spoke up, leaning up on his elbows as he become engaged in the now riveting conversation.

"And naturally, the people can understand being human." Lucretia spoke up in agreement.

"And the restrictions that come with mortality and the flaws that come within the building blocks of our beings." Orion finished.

Anshar smiled, _now children, just see what great levels your young minds can ascend to if only they are inspired to fly._

"But why go through all of that trouble to tell the tale of a hero who possesses the same flaws we ourselves struggle so much to overcome? Why tell the tale of a man who has the same characteristics of the market manager or of the tax collector?" Anshar asked gazing at each one of the children in the circle.

"Because he was an equal." Sinis croaked up, falling back comfortably onto the ground with a thump, "We would not have to serve him as we would any demi-child of a god, nor fear him as such."

"But relate and laugh at his, uniquely human condition." Anna of Jupiter finished. "He served as a point of humor as much as he served as a figure of ancient legend. That is his duality, as a human hero."

"Then the truth is," Orion paused tapping his chin for a moment before continuing, "That we admire Ilus for his flaws, among various other qualities, other than the divinity which most legendary heroes seem to possess. Telling the story of a human hero infinitely brings us closer to the goals that we feel are reachable, it gives hope that anything is attainable."

_And this, is precisely why I cherish my calling,_ Anshar thought his grin widening, _in not even a normal mortal lifespan, would I proclaim this vocation too tedious to live._ _Their young minds soak up the knowledge of their own conclusions like coral sponges, let us hope the cruel world never rids them of that ability._

"Would the gods allow that?" Lucretia asked her ebony eyebrows narrowing incredulously. "Allow for a human to assume their status amongst our mists?"

There was a flicker of doubt in the Marian princess's eyes and Anshar wanted desperately to quell it. He knew the reason for this doubt. Religion was the main influence of the Marian society. If the gods did not favor it, neither did anyone else. The very problem was that, on Mars, as it is on many of the other planets; the will of the gods is often deciphered by the people in power. Anshar was an immortal. He had lived long enough and had seen what the extremist in the field of religion used to exercise their reign over others.

That was what Anshar had always been inspired to teach against, which was why he had been cast out of the Scholar's academy, for preaching unnatural and untraditional views; but that no longer bothered him. What did, however, was the corruption of young minds with shrewd, closed ideals. These were the children of royalty, therefore it would not be prudent for him to contradict their original cultural points of views, but some views had to be changed.

"My, dear children I teach you this." Anshar said his expression becoming serious, "If you walk away with nothing more from this lesson, know what I tell you." their teacher stood before them, standing tall and proud, "Every human is free of their own minds and bodies, with the ability to make their own choices live. Every person carries a distinct power within their beings, the power of free destiny, the power to choose their paths they would wish their lives to follow. This power gives the most insignificant of beings the right to change the future. Never forget, in these times of peace, we write our own destinies.

"That is why the people so love Ilus. He was a human who struggled against great odds and succeeded, even against his own society, despite the gods. True, he was a horrible example of a noble character, but stubbornness and determination also made him the people's hero. Without choices, without freedom lacking disdain, what are we? Miserable creatures who kill each other in war after war with no higher purpose. It is not the gods who give us wings, nor restrictions. The restrictions reside as walls of stone in our minds, while our wings remain too captivated to fly. But if we drop these walls, the distances we could soar over are limitless. Nothing restricts the individual, except the individual himself. "

The children were all silent. Sinis had returned to observing the clouds above him with interest while the prince of Mercury was watching his tutor closely, pondering the pure truth of his words. Anna of Jupiter sat silent, sometime along the conversation she had pulled her knees up tightly to her chest and slumped against the tree behind her heavily. Lucretia of mars was watching some distant object which she pretended to see on the horizon. Entarais was watching her tutor inquisitively, as if searching for more answers in the creases of his serious face. Alexandria appeared bewildered, her head cocked to one side as one of her small sandaled feet played with a rock in the minarets of sand beneath them. They were too timid to speak. The children themselves may have been young, but they knew what their parents had taught them. '_To be a good leader, you do what is expected of you',_ freedom for the sake of the individual was not permitted in the royal world. How could they comment on such a topic? One that was forbidden to someone who was to inherit their stations?

Anshar had expected an uncomfortable silence. Not many royals taught their children how to live for the success of their own lives, but instead demanded that they live for their planets. Anshar smiled, "Now on to a different topic of study, geography."

The children listened and then eventually lost interest in the discontented subject, but could never truly get their tutors previous choice of study out of their heads. It troubled them all from the end of this lesson on towards when the children concluded their studies on the immortal planet, and were placed on a special transport shuttle to Saturn for another course of study.

During the shuttle ride, news reached the ears of the royal children of an untimely death. Anshar, one of Pluto's most respected and liberal scholars, had been assassinated in his sleep for the views he had presented at a political rally in the marketing city of Mann. Strange, the immortal planet of Pluto was still subject to tragedy and unrest. Entarais often wondered, after that day, if Anshar had known the penalties for speaking in such a manner and had still chosen to do so despite it.

"He had to of known of the possible consequences for his actions." Sinis had argued on the shuttle, the children had begun discussing the misfortune amongst themselves almost immediately in the main room after they had absorbed the news.

"He was a brave man." Orion said as he sat beside the quietly sniffling Venian princess, "The best scholar I have ever had the chance to meet, he fought for his views, and we should all be so fortunate as to follow such an inspiring example."

Anna stood silently, leaning against the side of the clear window which showed the outlying stars. Entarais, who sat on a wooden chair hunched over and resting all of her weight on her knees, looked up at Anna and held her gaze. There was fear there in those emerald eyes, great apprehension, and Entarais would not challenge the Jovian princess on her decision to remain silent. It was perhaps the wisest single choice any one of them could make, considering the unfortunate circumstances.

"No!" Alexandria wailed, tears streaming down her cheeks. She had held them off as long as she could, but once the tidal wave of turbulent emotions was unleashed, there was no stopping it. The Venian princess was the youngest and most sentimental of them all, and so she was taking this unexpected loss the worst. "How terrible! How awful!"

Lucretia let out a much needed breath, not willing to listen to the Venian child's sniffles and cries, but unable to find the words to console her, she handed over a burgundy handkerchief to Orion who was cradling Alexandria and speaking to her gently in soothing tones.

"If death is a certain penalty, why speak out like that? What good could come of such an action?" Lucretia asked, bewilderment written all over her features, ebony eyebrows knitted together. "I do not understand any of this."

"Cultural differences." Entarais mumbled almost inaudibly earning an inquisitive look from the slowly calming Alexandria. Her tears had stopped coming, but small sobs still wracked her lithe frame.

"You do know that he left behind two new additions to his family by a recent marriage, a wife and a small infant. In all his years he had neglected to take a wife and now when he finally takes one and has a child, he blows all of his chances at happiness. He has condemned them to a life of solitude simply because he could not hold his tongue. Why make such a sacrifice if you know that you will have to leave those whom care for you behind?" Sinis said shaking his head angrily. "What a waste."

Entarais contemplated these words as she gazed out of the large window, watching the stars as they passed them. Worst of all, Anshar had been an immortal and so had the choice to live forever and yet he had given up the opportunity most rulers of the other planets would kill to have. _Why make that kind of sacrifice? Why risk all for no promise of success and every possibility of failure for something so simple as a personal belief?_, but she answered her own question with ease. For the good of yourself and others, why else? Why On Neptune there was no risk of such a catastrophe, as Neptune was one of the most liberal planets in their galaxy. On Neptune the people ruled and the government was based on the principal of common freedom. The royals accommodated the wishes and problems of the people, not vice versa, as it was on most planets. In short, a peasant on Jupiter who had no home could, on Neptune, be a person of distinguished means with an estate all his own.

Entarais hoped in time that she would be able to appreciate such a sacrifice or even learn from it. But she was young yet, with more years yet to learn life lessons from the actions of others. At any rate, Anshar left quite the impression on the young Neptunian. Quite the impression.

**Author's note: ** Contrary to most readers' beliefs, these royal children are not the senshi renamed. No the senshi will make their appearance in a later story. This is a prehistory to the Silver Millennium in which the senshi are present. It gives their families depth and back ground and it explains the diverse cultures of the planets and their relationships.

The order of events are mixed and matched. I often do Entarais childhood experiences inter mingled in the same time period as Regelle's, as so that the reader will not forget that Entarais exists. At this time, during the setting of this chapter, Regelle has not been born yet. I have often thought that the chapter order should be reversed so that Entarais came before Regelle, in order of appearance, but I have simply never taken the time to make the appointed adjustments. Please R & R! Any feed back is appreciated (even negative feedback).


	5. The Strength of Brotherhood

**Chapter 5 : The Strength of Brotherhood**

_**The Beginning of King Elieon's reign upon the moon, year 586**_

_**Pella, Mars**_

_**The Festival of Anubus, The Marian God of war**_

"Alexander!" the Marian king greeted his guest warmly, a deep smile lighting his tanned scared face. "It has been too long my friend."

King Alexander of Venus clasped King Tarquinius I's armored arm in friendship. Like brothers were the two kings. As boys they had been taught by the same tutor and nurtured by families whom had a great deal of respect and admiration for one another. The populations of both Venus and Mars had always behaved very friendly with each other, most Venian and Marian families having at least married member whom had come from the opposite planet.

"The days grew bitter in your absence, Tarquinius." Alexander replied a wide grin spread across his slightly tanned handsome features.

Tarquinius' jovial face brightened as he spoke, "Come. My servants have prepared a feast for you in your honor. You must be famished after your journey. I only hope that my planet's cuisine appeals to your richly conditioned palliate."

"Everything about your planet appeals to me." Alexander replied as both he and the king of Mars began walking to the large red tent which had been constructed for the feast, the Venian king studying the light blue of the sky in contrast with the dark orange of the sun. "Even the climate. I had forgotten the scolding temperatures. On Venus the sun is comfortingly warm, not scalding hot."

Ares laughed, "Even so, I do not rebuke the sun for its chosen intensity here. That simply means that the sun gods favor us more."

"Its been a great many years and yet I have returned here." Alexander said turning to Tarquinius, "Although my people are not too fond of my journeying here so close to Adonis's Festival, but for you I would sacrifice any holiday."

Tarquinius grinned broadly his dark features warming, but a bemused expression passed over his face and the Marian king raised one dark eyebrow in confusion, "But where is your queen and you lovely daughters? Surely you did not abandon them simply for the Festival of Anubus."

"They volunteered to remain home." Alexander answered, "I tried to dissuade them, but my wife insisted on staying. She said, 'A kingdom's heart resides in its women and where would that heart be need more than here.' Apparently, though, my daughters will be visiting me here in a few days, thanks to my delicate persuasion of their mother."

"Has Sana married yet?" the Marian king inquired lightheartedly of his friend's eldest daughter.

"No." Alexander sighed as they entered the tent destined for the feast, "I honestly do not know why she is so choosey. I have brought before her eligible princes from every planet and even some of the lesser nobility and yet she refuses them all. She dreams of her ideal lover while shutting all of the real potential loves out. I swear by the mother Goddess's veil, I will never understand my child's ways."

The Marian king sat down on a chair draped in red and gold silk and motioned Alexander to sit in a similar one across from him. "Perhaps she has simply not found the right prince yet."

Alexander rubbed his brow tiredly, "I do not know what precisely it is you are hinting at, but I do not see how that could be possible. I have literally thrown princes at her and yet she refuses to marry. If the fates had assigned you to my position as a father, what would you suggest?"

Tarquinius smiled like a wolf dreaming of a juicy meal, "I have just the solution you desire, my friend."

"And pray tell what would that be?" Alexander asked eyeing the newfound expression on Tarquinius' face with trusting curiosity and a short laugh.

"Marry her off to me." the Marian king interjected plainly.

"What!" Alexander asked with a sudden start as his earlier mirth left him. "But Tarquinius she-"

"I have never been married, nor has she and let us face reality, Alexander; a king needs a wife and your daughter would make a very beautiful bride. She is headstrong and the most beautiful woman on Venus. Be rest assured, my friend, it is her kind heart I love, not her appearance." the Marian kind reassured with a genuine smile this time, the hopeful light of his childhood registering in his dark eyes.

Alexander knew that the Marian king meant his daughter no harm, but the way in how he had worded his defense worried him, yet how could he deny such an offer from a man who was closer to him than any brother? Did Tarquinius not deserve to be happily married as he himself was? Did his daughter not deserve someone of great reputation and yet no one prince Alexander had ever heard of could best Tarquinius strength of character.

"I will think on the matter." Alexander answered with a comforting smile, as if jesting, "These sort of arrangements take time, Tarquinius. Of course you do not want to rush into a commitment such as this, besides it will all matter on how my daughter takes to you upon her arrival here."

"She has always treated me well enough." Tarquinius quipped as he lightly laughed "Besides, do you think that just because she would oppose me that I would stake claim to the Lunarian law and beat her for it? I am not that kind of man Alexander, you know me too well for having fear of such things."

"I must admit, that until you brought them up, I had a conception of no such fears. You certainly have changed in these past years, old friend." Alexander replied his features somewhat wearier than before.

"Well, it will not be long until Lunarian laws prevail. King Elieon of the moon is growing ever stronger. Mark my words, brother, he will be king over all the planets one day. So naturally if this is to be a Lunarian world then we must conform and become part of it." Tarquinius stated pouring himself another goblet full of wine.

Alexander appeared uneasy. The jubilant atmosphere which had earlier surrounded the two kings was now very tense and indirect. In an effort to break the awkward silence, King Tarquinius smiled and clapped for his servants whom entered the tent immediately carrying wooden trays of goblets of many wines and platters of tartly roasted meet and spicy cheese stuffed bread. The Marian palliate was such that they enjoyed unsavory sharp tastes which populations of other planets tried to avoid in their cuisine.

There was an open flap on the ceiling of the red tent through which showed the sun. The outlining sky, once baby blue, had now turned to a vehement shade of crimson, even to dark in color for the orange sun. This was not a rare occurrence. The Marian atmosphere was such that, depending on the time of day and on the sun's intensity, the sky would change color quickly due to the red gases in the atmosphere which also caused the planet its extreme heat and red color from afar. That was one of the reasons Mars did not appear so inviting to foreign visitors. The Marian sky, the color of freshly shed blood…

"My Lord Alexander?" a servant's voice brought the Venian king out of his revere.

A servant clad in long ,red satin tunic and ebony belt with a long knife hanging down from it in its sheath, dotted with gold; knelt before Alexander holding a golden pitcher in one hand while balancing a golden bowl filled to the brim with herbed liquid in the other and a white drying cloth over his arm. The Venian king rolled up his golden sleeves to his elbows and dipped his hands in the herb scented oil inside the golden bowl before him and then reached for the drying cloth.

"I had forgotten this custom." Alexander commented to Tarquinius as the same servant from before knelt before the Marian king with the pitcher and bowl of oil.

"To eat is a sacred act and so one must purify his hands before he is allowed to partake of the meal." The Marian king explained as he dipped his hands in the herb scented oil. "Food is not a commodity her as it is on Venus. For centuries my people have struggled to survive under harsh conditions, laboring with little food and less water. Only when my grandfather became king did the troubles lessen when he agreed to open our borders to trade with the other planets."

"Yes, I remember, although I was only a young boy at the time." Alexander recalled, "The first planet he opened trade negotiations with was Venus because in our borders merchandise and commodities of every planet, even from far away galaxies, course through our market system. If you cannot find what you desire on another planet, you will never cease to find it in great quantities on Venus. Rare spices, scarce fabrics, precious jewels, dark woods, maps of uncharted isles, expensive delicacies, sparse sweet meats and exquisite fruits; one could find all of these within our marketplaces. It was a wise choice for your grandfather to come to us for aid."

"Indeed." The Marian king replied quietly as his dark eyes starred down dejectedly into the burgundy depths of his wine goblet. "Your people have so much, they are so carefree…they even mate in the day light, it is a wonder they prevented themselves from becoming fattened and bored before we shared in their bounty."

The Marian king chanced a glance up at Alexander. There was envy present in the dark features of the scarred Marian features. Alexander suddenly felt ashamed of his boastfulness. True to form, the Venians were the most indulgent people out of all the planets and this stemmed from their access to everything they could ever need and more. The people of Mars had never had that luxury. Every Marian citizen had been forced to labor gruelingly just to scrape up enough food to eat every day and with the fact that Mars was made up of a number of large warring tribes, peace was almost unattainable.

Even deciding the king of Mars was a risky business. The leaders of every tribe had staked their right to rule the planet as of what happened on most planets in these situations, the majority bested the minority. Their name was the Shinti and they were the largest tribe to inhabit the westward lands of Mars. They pitched forward, the Tarquins, their ruling family as the dominate of Mars. In order to quell any resistance to their chosen leaders, the Shinti went under cover of darkness and murdered every other potential threat to their supremacy. That was how King Tarquinius's grandfather had come to rule, he was the first official king of Mars to be recognized by the other planetary leaders.

The people of Mars were one to be reckoned with. Every person had to be able to fed for themselves. Young males were expected if not crassly encouraged to fight one another as a way of toughening the boys to one day become men. Young women were trained to be entirely self sufficient, cooking, cleaning, hunting, farming, and protecting those in their care with no hope for anything better for themselves other than one day marrying and producing children. It was a hard life here, and only the strong survived. Alexander would not wish the same hardships upon the people of his planet, for he knew they would not survive them.

Tarquinius's expression eased and he smiled, "Come let us eat, it has been a long journey for you I am sure."

A servant, clad in much the same way as the wash boy had been, approached Alexander and knelt at his feet holding a platter of roasted meats. Handing the Venian king a iron plate, a long haired woman entered opposite the man holding the platter of meat and began carving up the roast.

She then balanced a large chunk of juicy meat upon the her knife edge and then placed the piece of brawn upon Alexander's plate. She then turned her dark eyes up at him and smiled shyly, she was a Marian beauty that was for certain, with black hair tied with a golden string cascading down her dark back. Alexander could not place her, but the woman seemed familiar.

Tarquinius noticed his friend's appreciative stare and interceded upon his behalf, "You do remember my sister, Eshe. She has long awaited your return."

"Oh, yes!" Alexander exclaimed in joy as the memory of the tan little girl whom used to tag after he and Tarquinius on their way to lessons, "It has been a long time, Eshe, and as always your legendary beauty shines bright."

"Thank you, my lord." the princess smiled every movement she made in slicing the meat and preparing the green vegetables around it, gracefully carried out.

"There should be no formalities between such familiar friends. Please refer to me as, Alexander." The Venian king replied.

Eshe then returned her attentions to the task at hand and as soon as the Venian king's plate was filled with roast meat and greens, she turned her attention over to her brother's plate and began to carve pieces of meat out for him. All of this she did and was observed in silence by both her grinning brother and the furiously blushing Venian king.

As soon as the princess left the tent, Tarquinius addressed Alexander, "She is a true beauty is she not?"

"Yes." Alexander answered, finding his mouth suddenly dry. "She must have a very fortunate husband."

"No, I am afraid that my sister is as stubborn as your daughter when it comes to choosing a husband." Tarquinius said, then slyly quipped, "But that does not exclude you from attracting her affections. Do you remember when we came back from a hunt one day in our tenth year and you returned injured? Oh how she fawned over you that day. She even took great care of your wound after you had drifted off to sleep, telling off many of my father's finest healers in the process. It was a wondrous day. She never spoke of it after that, but I was certain that she had lost her heart to you."

Alexander smiled at the memory, "I do remember that day. I spent the majority of it drifting in and out of consciousness while she mended my wounds." but then the sudden reality struck him, "Tarquinius I am married. What type of king suggests to another a treasure which they may never possess?"

Tarquinius shrugged his broad shoulders, "What is the phrase on Venus, 'Men are like stallions, they must charm all of the mares in the herd'?"

"Yes." Alexander resigned with a sigh recognizing the phrase associated with a native fable of his homeland.

"Besides do not most of your people live by the philosophy that their lives may end at any moment so they should put their worries aside and live for the thrill of the moment? So tonight the festivities begin, a time when my people enjoy the moment. If you truly do care for Eshe at least bask in her company. Simply because you are married does not mean that you cannot enjoy the attention my sister gives you."

Alexander thought for a moment. He had never been unfaithful to his wife and he did not plan to start here. Yet he still wished to thank Eshe for her kindness in taking care of him all of those long years ago and could not hide from her company. To his surprise, he found he enjoyed her company compared to that of many others. She was comforting to him and something inside him told the king that he needed to be comforted now.

"I will attend the festivities with you and your sister this night, Tarquinius, but expect no more of me than what I am willing to offer." Alexander answered. An uneasy feeling told Alexander that there was something more than mere friendly encouragement behind the Marian king's next words.

"Then so be it." the Marian king smiled, "My sister will be yours this night in the company you keep, but be kind to her."

"I promise you I shall." Alexander said lightheartedly, pushing back his earlier worries ,his heart lightening at the thought of the Marian beauty.

"I know." Tarquinius smiled, the wolfish grin returning to his face in anticipation of the coming night of festivities.

**Author's note: ** I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter. Please R & R!


	6. A Father's Daughter

**Chapter 6: A Father's Daughter**

_**The Beginning of King Elieon's reign upon the moon, year 586**_

_**The Imperial City, Uranus**_

_**Castle Deagelle**_

"Papa! Papa!" the little child cried excitedly, teal eyes shining with exhilaration and dirt smudging her face, as she ran to the stone balcony her father was watching over his villagers from. "I did it! I rode the horse without falling off!"

King Bastion turned towards his daughter as she raced up to him and leapt into his outstretched arms. The Uranian king held his daughter close to him and then pulled away from her, gazing upon her dirtied face with great pride. The tiny child motioned to be let down and grabbed her father's arm leading him out into the dusty court yard she had just vacated. The Midday sun was high in the sky and the sun seemed to blind them as they left the shade of the palace.

In the middle of the courtyard stood an amber clad servant holding the leather reigns to a golden horse. The saddle blanket was woven in many different zigzagged stripes and straight edged shapes of different hues of blue, while the saddle itself was light, made of leather, its high back studded with gold; sporting no stirrups or footholds . The horse pawed the ground with gray hooves impatiently. The little girl pulled her father over to the horse's side and then attempted to climb up in the saddle, her tiny arms struggling with the effort of lifting her weight upon the horse's back.

The Uranian king chuckled as his daughter's sun kissed face reddened in frustration and then blanched in surprised as the leather saddle began to slip from the horse's back, sending the small princess to the ground with a resounding thud.

Regelle sat up and rubbed the back of her neck, with her teal eyes still closed from the impact of the ground, "It hurts." She whispered, more to herself than to her father as the servant strapped the saddle back into its place, but after hearing her father's chuckles; she rose to her feet sheepishly. With newfound determination, Regelle hopped up onto the back of the horse, barely secure on its side, the horse grunted and shifted as if trying to gauge what type of small freeloader was clinging to its backside.

The king took pity on his daughter, and with laughing teal eyes, he grasped one of her legs beneath the knee and gave her a small push into the saddle. She floundered with a yelp and almost fell over the other side, but righted herself and sat upright in the middle of the saddle.

"Be careful, Regelle." Bastion cautioned as Regelle took up the reins in the proper hold.

"Watch me, papa." Regelle called as she kicked the horse lightly on both sides. The horse broke off into a straight forward gallop and true to her word, Regelle stayed planted on the saddle, her navy cloak fanning out behind her.

The wind seemed to blow with her, its current incorporating her into its main stream. She was a fast as the wind, not racing it, but becoming one within it. The hot desert sun beat down on them mercilessly, but was compensated for by the cool breeze now rapidly blowing.

The Uranian king had a smile on his face fit for a sated predator. Teal eyes were alight with joy. There was a time when Bastion had wished his daughter had never been born, but that time was gone now; replaced with a feeling of contented happiness that he could not conceive of having to live without.

She rode back to him, the wind's current changing direction to follow her. She reigned up before him and smiled down at him happily.

"I did it Papa!" She yelled as the servant grabbed the reigns and she leapt out of the saddle, being caught by her father's sturdy arms.

Regelle laughed as the horse was led away and her father began spinning her around in a circle. Bastion stopped circling and placed a kiss on his daughter's cheek and then gazed at the child in his eyes adoringly. "My girl! I am so proud of you!" The Uranian king began spinning her around again as he spoke, "And I would not trade you for a son on any given day. I am nothing without you and your mother. You are both my very reason for being and that will never change."

"He is not exactly ideal, Lucilla." Jafari cautioned as he spoke to the Uranian queen.

"Enough, Jafari." Lucilla narrowed her eyes while looking up from the view at the window to the chamberlain standing beside her. "I have heard enough of your meaningless warnings and I will suffer no more of your predictions to be told in my sight."

Jafari clenched his jaw, "But I only speak the truth, my lady. Without my words where would the crown be now? Have my predictions ever failed, Lucilla?"

"No, but they have never turned out as intended." Lucilla eyed him suspiciously, "In order for one to come true a price must be paid. For every prediction granted something important must be sacrificed, some further problem must be isolated and solved before peace can return to us. Please, Jafari, speak to me no more of any of your visions, for what the future holds I am eager to find with my own two eyes."

"The consequences associated with my visions are not of my own making." The chamberlain defended his vastly growing wounded pride, "They come on fate's demand. Why, even in our own world everything is bartered for a price. Exchanges are based on the principals of gain and loss. A life for a life, a law for a law, happiness for war, loyalty for tyranny, death for life, loss for peace, destiny is in demand of such things. No, queen, all of this is none of my doing."

"No, but it is what you wished for." The queen accused her gaze never leaving the chamberlain.

"My lady, my only wish is to ensure this crown's survival, I was defending the king's honored reputation." Jafari argued.

"You were shielding yourself, by hiding behind your title and remaining behind." Lucilla reprimanded, "Bastion is the king of this land and it is not without consequence that a chamberlain openly condones disputes against his orders, not even one as distinguished as yourself."

"The Southern king's representative had no right-"

"Jafari, we do not need a war. Not in these rare moments of peace." The queen stated firmly, silencing the chamberlain with a glare, allowing the disrespectful man know that this conversation was over.

Lucilla returned her gaze to the window as a peaceful smile overcame her features. Outside in the courtyard the king and his daughter played, each chasing and holding captive the other; the little girl laughing as her father picked her up from the ground beneath her feet.

"There once was a time when the king wished that his daughter had never been born." Jafari commented, testing the previously turbulent waters. "That time is over now."

"Times change, Jafari, as much as people themselves change." Lucilla replied the warm fulfilling feeling inside her growing with her smile as Regelle chased her father around in a circle and then tackled him, still laughing, to the ground. "He is so content that he loves her more than he could love any son and if he could he would instate her to the Uranian throne."

"He cannot, the law says so." Jafari argued defiantly.

The Uranian queen gazed slyly up at the chamberlain, "He has been seriously contemplating changing that law and I believe that soon our history and our fates are about to change with the acceptance of one other."

Jafari's shock showed purely on his face, "He would not dare…no king in the history of our planet, of either the north or the south would dare bring disgrace upon both himself and his heritage by defying the law of their ancestors! This is insane! The ruler of Uranus has and always be a man. No amount of greatness could ever come from a woman ruler."

"You do know, Jafari, that women are quite competent of more than just giving birth to young heirs." The queen replied, no surprise on her face as she had been expecting a statement of that caliber coming from the chamberlain. "All we lack, is a proper chance to prove ourselves."

_And for good reason,_ Jafari seethed turning his displeased gaze back towards the window. The king was twirling young Regelle around in the air, planting a kiss on her tanned cheek. The queen's smile became heartfelt at this. All she truly needed to feel completely content was not this kingdom, not the wealth of the north, not the pride of Uranus' warriors, but her husband and her child. This, something so simple as a kind day to spend time with one another, was her entire fortune. All she needed was their love and happiness, nothing else mattered to her, not even the collapse of this fragile kingdom itself.

Before this time, she and Bastion had so wished for a child, for a living embodiment of their love and devotion to one another and here she was. The single light that lifted the darkness from their lives. She would live a charmed life. The austere life Regelle's father had originally had in mind for her, dissipated the first day she cast a happy toothless grin up at him when she was an infant, melting the ice covering his heart. From that day forward, she had been his little girl, his to protect and guide through life. Bastion was so protective over his girl, that while other royals sent their children to other planets to be educated, young Regelle was educated inside the palace walls by tutors brought from far and wide to teach her fundamental skills, but what she was lacking was the lessons of occurrence that life was to bring.

With only so much access to experience life inside the palace walls, the queen wondered what kind of woman Regelle would grow up to be. She loved riding horses and dressing in breeches and tunics, finding the exploits of great rulers and heroes more beguiling than those of the damsels in or rather of distress in the legends of their planet.

"He will have a son." Jafari interjected as he watched a frown crease the queen's face, destroying the happy moment.

The queen's features became disturbed and a terrible dread grew in her heart, then she asked urgently, "What price must be paid? Jafari, what penalty?"

A satisfied grin crept upon the chamberlain's face as he watched Regelle and her father tumble to the ground laughing out in the courtyard, "It is complicated to explain, my lady, but I am certain this foresight will come to its terms, whatever the costs."

That night the chamberlain raced along the outer walls of the castle, taking shelter in the dark shadows there. He stopped to catch his breath beneath a square archway. Jafari chanced a glance out of the shadows, before quickly darting back into their depths as two armed guards passed him on their rounds, the gates were never closed during nightly rounds.

He turned his head, glancing around him nervously, then he raced out into the darkness; being careful to keep his distance from the torches lighting select areas of the walls and arches. Jafari ran with only the legendary speed a pure blooded Uranian possessed, passing into a thicket on the outskirts of the walls. _Why is this area so scantly guarded?_ He wondered as he entered the thicket. Normally, the Uranian king would have placed guards at every entrance and yet he had slipped through an archway and into wooded cover undetected.

_Practice makes perfect, _Jafari mused. He meandered deeper through the dense underbrush searching for his contact. He suddenly stumbled over a heavy burden on the ground, landing on top of the soft object. The darkness and shade of the tall brush leant no light to identify the object. Jafari felt along its surface. The exterior was cold to the touch and engraved suggesting metal, but it gave precariously in one area, yielding a sticky liquid from the soft cushion beneath. He felt further, feeling wool and then the very distinct features of a human face.

The Uranian chamberlain shot away from the dead man on the ground, breaking out in a cold sweat of nerves and stress.

"What took you so long to meet me." The voice was cold, leaving no room for mercy or questions.

Jafari stood cautiously, searching for the owner of the voice, "The wall guards came after you? How did you escape?"

"I did not have too, they did not escape me." The voice drawled as a soft thud was heard as another armored body landed at the chamberlain's feet. "Now, my little informant, what took you so long to find me?"

"There were whispers about the palace. The king knows about the plot, he has gathered that there is unrest within the reaches of his own bloodline. With no son, he feels that his throne is under increasing threat from outside the borders of the north and, he fears, from within. That is why he has chosen to school his daughter within the palace walls, to protect his only child from death." Jafari swallowed hard, his dry throat uncomfortable as he trembled fearfully in the dark of the night, "What if they find out that I am connected to you? The queen has grown suspicious of me, since the fight with Nultra and his southern mongrels; she will not trust my visions. What if she tells the king to be weary of me along with his own family members? Then he will order both of our heads on a silver platter. What if-"

Jafari lost his ability to speak as the blade of a sword, was pressed dangerously close to the skin of the underside of his throat, the limited ethereal light of the moon reflecting on the curved blade, revealing its owners teal eyes.

"No more 'what ifs'." The gruff voice ordered, teal eyes narrowing dangerously, the film over the left blind eye becoming an opaque white. "If my brainless royal cousin does find out, it will not matter. The rebellion has begun and because of your predictions we will be able to place our own heir onto the throne, an heir of their same royal blood, without consequence. Regelle will pose no threat to us and the queen will play no more of a part in this performance."

"But, Scaevus, the king-"

"Bastion is a weakling, his kind heart makes him feeble and I will take care of him." Scaevus answered, the moonlight from his sword blade catching on the gold of his signet ring, causing the antiqued image of a hawk preying on a serpent to shine on the ring's surface. "Be patient, we still have but a year to wait. Timing is everything." The sword point at Jafari's neck dug a small gash into the chamberlain's flesh as he gasped, a flare like sharp pain erupting beneath his skin, "And for your sake, my good chamberlain, your visions better come true, because if they do not." The blade dug another gash, this time deeper as Jafari flinched and cried out in anguish, "Then your life will be in very grave danger. Do not fail me."

A rush of wings was heard above them as black birds fluttered noisily from the branches above their heads. The offending blade quickly flew from the exposed neck as teal eyes disappeared along with their owner into the darkness.

"For another time." Was the gruff response as the royal rebel retreated into the coldness of the night.

Jafari breathed, his breaths coming in short and relieved gasps, as sweat streamed from his weathered forehead. He brought a trembling hand up to his neck and felt the gashes their, wincing as pain shot through his nerves. He pulled his fingers back feeling the sticky blood there, as a reminder of his stinging wounds. These gashes were a warning and in truth, he was lucky this was all he had been dealt. Yes, Scaevus was a killer, a eighteen year old tyrant who gorged himself in bloodlust on the battlefield and who could not live without some form of mayhem to create. And here he had set his sights on the highest of all prospects, the Uranian throne to the north.

Scaevus was not a honorable man and it would not be wise to allow a man such as that to rule the north. He would tear them in two and then suffer a civil war between both sides, it would be the end of them, but then again; Jafari was in no position to oppose him. All those who dare to stand against the heartless prince ended up falling to his blade. Not even the king in the south would cross him, no matter how many soldiers he could muster to face him.

He moved back one step and then started as a loud ruckus sounded from behind him, a startled desert thrush flying loudly out of the brush.

"Over there!" the captain of the guards shouted, as he and his patrol party advanced further, the sounds of marching boots coming closer. "Scout the area! Search the brush!"

Cold fear suddenly took hold of Jafari. He had to run, but where too? Who knows. Who cares. Just run and run he did. Jafari ran back into the thorny brush laying low to the ground, as flat as his linen garments would allow. Before him he saw the animal hide boots of the royal guards, illuminated and shadowed by the light of the torches carried by the guards.

"By the gods…" a distressed sentinel uttered in unpleasant surprise as he stumbled across one of the corpses of his fellow guards. "What horrors happened here?"

A crackling torch was brought down to enlighten the carnage on the ground as the captain of the guard kneeling down to inspect a disfigured body. Jafari had not noticed in the dim darkness, but the ground beneath all of their feet was red with cold blood. The corpses of the fallen guards almost floating across the vermillion sheen. The odor of death was pungent here and it hung in the still night like an unsightly fog. There were ten carcasses in all, each one mutilated brutally beyond compare.

"The sentries of the South shall pay dearly for this treachery." A guard muttered amid gritted teeth.

Pieto, the Captain of the royal guard, turned the pale face of one of his dead countrymen to the side to reveal where all of the skin of one pallid cheek had been cut away into specific shapes, very recognizable bloody images of an angular hawk clutching a serpent. Pieto sighed in irritation as he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"The sentries of the South are not responsible for this slaughter, Arestus," the captain said, "This bloodshed in the product of one man, a consort of our royal blood."

"But, Captain, does this all mean-"

"Yes." Pietro opened his eyes once more to the horrifically mangled bodies strewn on the ground around him, "The tyrant is no longer dormant." The captain looked to his troops, "Search the place! Leave not a bush unexamined nor one rock unturned, do not flee here until you have found him!"

A guard protested, "Captain, he may be well away from here by now."

"Never the less, he is a great threat and we must capture him before he draws more supporters to his cause." Pietro said and then shouted to his guards, "Do not relent in your search until he is found!"

Jafari laid completely still, barley breathing as the soldiers began to sweep the area, their torches bent precariously close to the dense underbrush to show what was being hidden there. It was only a matter of time before they found him, now. The royal guards were dogged in their search, looking beneath every stone and bending over every bush. The royal chamberlain scrambled away, crawling on hands and knees backwards. Not taking note of the dangerous terrain about him, his hand slipped on some loose sand and he plummeted back over a small over hang and knocked unconscious upon a bed of rocks.

"What was that noise?" a guard asked as he crept among the brush.

The captain of the guard came up alongside him, there was something here, though the torch light was too dim to discern it out from the darkness.

The commotion was heard by the guards, as Pietro descended the treacherous scar swiftly down to the motionless body of the chamberlain cast onto the rocks. The captain of the guards bent over the chamberlain and gently cradled his head in his hands, as the young Pietro gazed at him almost tearfully, with the breath of a lost child.

"Father." The captain whispered as he leaned respectfully over the chamberlain feeling the slippery blood at the base of his wounded neck, then he turned sternly back to his guards. "Carry him on your shoulders, we must flee underfoot, hurry!"

The guards scurried about and then lifted the unconscious chamberlain on their shoulders, cradling his injured frame with care as then climbed dangerous terrain. It was imperative that the chamberlain lived until they reached the palace. They marched quickly.

_Hold on father,_ Pietro thought, _Please hold on._

_This had better be important, _Bastion complained as he sat in his throne room. He had been disturbed from his slumber by a rather frantic servant whom in his nervousness, had startled his wife, frightened his child, and had sent him on a rampage through the castle corridors in his haste to get to the throne room where he now awaited the Captain of his royal guards. The double doors opened with a creak as the captain entered his main hall. He seemed quietly disturbed as he bowed lowly before his king.

"My Lord Bastion, I bring you urgent news." The blonde head snapped up and indigo blue eyes riveted to the throne and the king sitting in it, "May I approach?"

"Yes, Pietro." Bastion waved his hand dismissively and yawned, his fatigue showing in his ragged features. "What is it?"

"A slaughter in the woods outside the palace." Pietro said stepping closer, "Ten of my guards were brutally slain." His teeth ground together in his mounting rage, "And carved into the side of the face of my younger brother's corpse were the emblems of a hawk clutching a serpent in its talons."

Bastion had straightened up, a look of abrupt horror in his teal eyes concealed by a only slightly mortified expression on his face," Scaevus? Is Scaevus responsible for the massacre!" the Uranian king's voice was urgent and commanding, "Well! Speak your peace boy!"

"Yes." Pietro ground out, "That monster killed nine of my men, murdered my younger brother and left my father laying unconscious in a ravine. I swear to you my lord, my loyalty to you is true as strong as my devotion to my family and If you send me, I will do everything under my power to eradicate this threat to your supremacy. I will support Regelle's rule, if placing her on the throne is what you wish, I will ensure its happening. "

Bastion had turned his gaze from his fuming captain and was gazing off into space, his thoughts racing distastefully through his head, "A rebellion has begun…under Scaevus. This has begun now because they see my only daughter as a liability, no doubt. Vultures drawn to the festering carcass of power, all of them. The moment they sense weakness, my eligible family members ready themselves for the death blow."

"My lord are you listening to me?" Pietro shouted at the king upon his throne, but Bastion did not break from his revere.

"If he can cause mayhem like this among my guards then he can deplete the wall patrol, overcome the castle defenses and sack this palace. If he can sack this palace…"Bastion's eyes narrowed as he starred at some far off object in the empty space before his eyes, "Then he can sack the Imperial city, and if he can sack the city then what is to stop him from invading the northern providences?"

"We will send an army, my lord, we will stop him!" Pietro shouted. "My king, make some plea of action. Give me an order, we must do something!"

"Who would I send with the offer of peace?" Bastion inquired to himself, his voice despairing and hopeless. "Not Lucilla, not my only child, and not my unconscious chamberlain. Who then? What are we to do to weather this threat? What must I do?"

**Author's note:** And the story becomes more complicated! I apologize for the lateness of my update. My family was struck by a grave misfortune as my father passed away this week. It has been hard to endure, but the main point of hope is that we do continue to endure. Thank you for all of the supportive reviews, without which I could not continue to write this story. Please R & R!


	7. Introduction to Retribution

**Chapter 7: Introduction to Retribution **

**_King Elieon's reign upon the moon 585_**

_**Andvarinaut Valley, Saturn**_

Somewhere in the Andvarinaut Valley, in a wooden tavern filled with disgusting displays of vice, gluttony, and violence; a young man sat calmly sipping on a clay mug of malt ale. His hair was the classic Jupiterean shade of auburn while his eyes were emerald in color. His cloak was dirty and worn and his face was hard and set in its ways. A man approached him, wearing a tan merchant's cloak and tapped him on the shoulder lightly.

"Yes?" the young Jupiterean man questioned. "Did you bring what it is I asked for?"

"Yes, Lord Tuireann." The merchant quickly handed over a hard, straight object wrapped in velvet cloth.

The young man of Jupiter unwrapped the small bundle to reveal a long stiletto, one of specific Marian craftsmanship of pre-industrial conception.

"Are you sure this was the one used in the famous murder concerning the Jupiterean ambassador in Anteium?" Tuireann asked as he cradled the deadly weapon, seemingly awed by both the destructive potential and the tragic history of the blade.

"Of the ambassador Sagittarius? Yes." The merchant answered quickly.

"Alright then." Was Tuireann's solemn reply as he pulled a small leather pouch from where it had been bound at his belt. He tossed it to the surprised man. "Fifty shekels as agreed. Well done, now, you may go."

The merchant nodded and sped away as fast as he had arrived. The young man rebound the long knife with reverence and then shoved it beneath his belt. Tuireann then lifted his mug to his lips and took a long drink before setting it down again. It had been so many years. Such a long time to wait for retribution. Such a term of long years of his mother's anguished cries and backbreaking labor just to keep them from the poor house, because Sagittarius his distinguished father, was no longer alive to provide for them. Their only sense of community and livelihood, dead in one day. No compensation for the terrible act. No blood money paid. Tuireann had been a small child at the time, but he remembered the crushing blow as if it had only come about yesterday. The wealthy son of a politician reduced in an instant to poor apprentice to a boot cutter and then to an orphan after his mother eventually drove herself delirious with grief and hung herself. Yes, it had been a hard life, but this well planned moment would account for all of it.

Hot headed Marians were often known for these types of open displays of vengeance and often caught for them after the destructive crimes had been committed, but little did they know that Jupitereans did the same when their honor was insulted. They were simply never caught in the act.

_Let the weapon that killed my father, silence the beating heart of my enemy._

He smiled self assuredly as the orange glow of the firelight danced in his sharp emerald eyes. Yes, the day would soon come when he would be avenged. All he needed was an opportunity to arise, and he could afford to wait and watch for his chance. _I have waited this long._ Tuireann mused to himself. _I have the royal blood of long life._ _What does it matter if I wait a few more hundred years? So long as the deed is done, that is all I am concerned about. _Retribution was a dish best served cold indeed.

**Author's notes:** And one antihero is established. Score! Short chapter, but as always I hope you enjoyed reading it. I like creating these little side stories. They are so much fun! Please R & R!


	8. The Power of Choices Part 1

**Chapter 8: The Power of Choices part 1**

_**King Elieon's reign upon the moon 576**_

_**Andvarinaut Valley, Saturn**_

_**Draupnir Castle**_

The monotone voice droned throughout the large chamber. The tutor was studious and strict to the royal children in his care. He preached about subjects they had heard of, but never studied and in interests they did not find interesting. But their teacher was relentless.

"Now class, what is the most highly valued currency in the Venian market system?" The tutor was dressed in flawlessly flowing black robes tapping a baton on his arm absentmindedly.

Not one of the royal children was encouraged to raise their hand, not even Orion, the intellectual prince of mercury. All of the students had an air of lethargy about them, not wishing to answer or even move for that matter. Classes on Saturn were often held indoors because the Andvarinaut valley of Saturn was the most notorious producer of vice and debauchery on the planet. No place for foreign travelers, let alone for mere children.

Entarais was gazing out the window dully. Lucretia seemed to be paying attention to the teacher's words, although she did not look the least bit interested in the content of the words themselves. It was a simple courtesy to listen to the teacher's lessons even if you did not like what he had to say. Alexandria was paying no mind to this courtesy, leaning against one hand on the verge of sleep. Orion was respectably paying attention to the instructor, but he too seemed bored with the lesson. Sinis did not even bother to hide his discontent, twirling a stylus around in his hand, staring about the room without concentration.

Anna of Jupiter was watching Entarais out of the corner of her eye, giving her unsuspecting companion her undivided attention. The Neptunian's cerulean eyes were gazing at the horizon almost regretfully, as if longing for the freedom beyond these walls. Entarais was a free spirit and watching as her closest friend sighed sadly, Anna was almost convinced that confining her to this room was far beyond cruel.

Anna did not know when exactly she had begun to notice Entarais as being different from her other companions, but it had just sort of happened one day. The Neptunian princess had become a closer friend over the last few months than she could ever remember having before, yet all of the royal children had become close over days following Anshar's death, depending on each other for emotional support and friendship.

But Anna's relationship with Entarais was a close friendship enhanced with a strange feeling of adoration. Such feeling were foreign to her young mind, but she could do nothing to whether it. The feeling came on without her full knowledge or conscious consent, but it was not at all unwelcome. Anna found she liked being near Entarais, just the Neptunian's presence gave her a comfort that being taken away from home had robbed her of and yet a simultaneous feeling of adulation that was entirely separate from the one of comfort. Even at this young age, something told Anna that Entarais meant more to her than anyone else she knew and she would never risk losing such a bond. She would keep Entarais as a close friend and stay by her side. Suddenly, Entarais's head shot up at the sound of her name being called, breaking Anna from her thoughts.

"Young Entarais is there something so important that it draws your attention away from my lesson and out the window?" Zwevezele, their Saturnarian instructor asked as he stood beside the Neptunian princess's desk, tapping the wooden baton on his arm persistently.

"No sir, I was only taking note of how beautiful it is outside in the valley." Entarais replied calmly.

The stern instructor was infuriated, "Insolent girl! I will teach you not to speak to me with such disregard. You will stay four hours after class and scrub the courtyard clean."

"But I-"

"No argument!" Zwevezele snapped and then turned sternly to the rest of the group. "Class is dismissed."

Entarais stood up gathering her stylus, rolls of parchment, and ink bottle all up in her arms. She was ready to follow Professor Zwevezele out in to the courtyard, but as she turned towards the door her cerulean gaze met two intently focused emerald eyes. Entarais smiled charmingly and Anna blushed before gathering her things and rushing of the chamber, well in front of her companions. The Neptunian princess smiled to herself smugly, but her teacher snapped his fingers impatiently silencing her mirth.

Zwevezele curled one long finger held out on a hand before his stern form as a gesture for movement, "Are you finished? You certainly took your time, come. We do not want to keep the courtyard waiting now do we?"

Entarais sighed loudly as her instructor led her out of the chamber and down to the courtyard. The large expanse of marble was well over 200 meters long and 100 meters wide, no short distance of space for one child to clean. Entarais stared wide eyed at the overpowering task before her. A wooden bucket was thrown into her face, connecting painfully with her nose as she was caused to take a few steps backwards from the impact. She held the bucket in one hand while rubbing her sore, red nose with the other.

"There is a fountain at the far wall to fill your bucket with and rags in the storage shed with which to scrub the court." The instructor said simply as though he really could care less. "I will return in one hour. If that courtyard is not spotlessly clean upon my return, then the consequences will be dire. Get to work!"

Entarais sighed as she wandered over to the wall fountain. This was not how she had envisioned spending her afternoon.

----

"I hate this game!" The frustrated voice of the prince of mercury floated up from the grassy meadow where the royal children had decided to take refuge after their last class was dismissed.

"That is only because you are bad at it. It is in fact, a very fun game." Sinis of Saturn spoke up. "Now, on to the next round."

The two princes stuck their fists out in front of one another and shook them up and down three times, the last shake producing the hand sign of either a piece of paper, a two daggers, or a rock.

The Saturnarian prince's hand remained in a fist while Orion's hand took the shape of the mouth of two daggers.

"Yes!! Rocks always break the brittle metal of daggers, I win!" Sinis yelled triumphantly with much arrogance. "You lost and I won!"

"Balderdash!" Orion protested embarrassed by the loss, his face reddening with blatant humiliation as he did. "The game is not worth playing."

"You are simply too proud, genius." Sinis retorted as prideful as ever. "To take a loss, and a very well deserved loss, at that. Why not lower your distinguished self to our level?"

Orion huffed and fell back against the ground ungracefully, watching the skeletal clouds in the atmosphere move slowly across the purple sky. _This was not his ideal of a worthwhile afternoon._

The birds chirped melodically in the trees and the bubbling of clearly flowing brooks and streams flooded their ears from the surrounding forest. Saturn was a beautiful planet. Its wilderness was a brilliant mixture of lush grasslands and tropical jungles to green forests and fields of wild flowers. Ironic that a planet so idealic in natural beauty could also be labeled the planet of death and destruction, with a history as gruesome as its title. But therein lay a parallel. In death there was also rebirth.

Anna was laying atop a large boulder on her stomach, leaning over the edge watching the slight wind ruffle the green of the grass in one direction, the sun reflecting off from the small green blades as they moved. She reached down to feel the grass, allowing the soft pressure of the wind blow the blades between her finger tips. Though her body was here, her thoughts were on something different entirely. Or rather, on someone. _Entarais…_Her closest friend. The wind chasing after them as they raced through the tall grass. Or climbed trees together. The wilderness could be their playground, their refuge from the world. Many days Anna dreamed of such carefree times, allowing her imagination to transport her from her troubles to where she wished she could be.

Alexandria was lying beside Lucretia who was skipping small rocks across the shifting waves of green. The Venian princess was watching Lucretia with a great deal of interest, her cobalt eyes never leaving the form of her companion. She seemed to be searching for something, admiring the dark eyes and ebony hair as she did so. Then as if in defeat, she sighed and rolled onto her back. Her eyes were sad and her posture stiff and inflexible as she regarded the sky above their heads with cold eyes. Lucretia had sensed the sudden change in emotion and chanced a short glance at her companion, who was steadily ignoring her. Alexandria's eyes suddenly darted towards her and she looked away hurriedly, focusing on the grass of the ground instead.

Anna rolled onto her back, gazing at the sky. The valley was beautiful this time of year. It was quite the dynamic, just as many different symbols were. Anna loved it here. It reminded her the most of the hilly, never ending green wilderness of her homeland They had only resided here for under a year, but already Anna knew that she loved these lands. But in contrast, this place was as dangerous as it was beautiful. Perhaps, that was what so attracted her to it. _If I had my choice of any place to remain in the afterlife, I would reside here for all eternity._ Anna thought, then she laughed at the absurdity of the thought. _What a silly thought. I will die one day and the gods will place me where they judge. Who am I to make such a decision?_

Sinis pulled a loaf of knot shaped bread from his cloth knapsack and leaned back. Kneading bread and other pastries into shapes and configurations was a time honored tradition on Saturn. Bread shaped like knots of rope represented the family, each single knot representing a family member. Sinis ripped a piece off of the loaf and began chewing it carefully. Orion appeared near sleep laying at peace, sheltered by the tall grasses. Here was a place they could all relax and be at peace.

Here they did not have to pay any mind to royal obligations, stuffy tutors, worldly troubles, or over critical adults. No more stressful and boring moments lost. Here, in this meadow, they were free to be just who they were: children, without the watchful eyes of the world waiting for them to make a mistake. Here they were simply what they had always wished to be: carefree children without masks or blunders, but only here could they dare become what they dreamed, for the expectant world of royalty would never allow them to remain so and that was the tragedy of their youth.

Prisoners already and yet, still only children. What cruel fates could they not hope to defeat? It was a part of growing into a strong prince or princess: being able to give up your personal wants and desires to serve the state. Life would seem so dull, so lifeless after these years of peace and friendship. But would they be able to give it up once their planets demanded it of them? Once they were ordered to sacrifice their free will to become what their cultures demand that they become? Of course they would. They always did.

-----

The courtyard gleamed as the freshly washed stones glistened with a moist sheen. The sun beat down heavily upon the small dot in the middle of the courtyard, stretching back and forth as she washed the stones bare with a wet rag and a bucket full of murky water. She reached back and felt the sweat on her neck, where the intense rays were burning her skin. It was a searing heat. Even on her own home planet the sun did not burn this intensely. She looked down at her hands. They were red and swelling with sore blisters. Entarais let out a tired sigh. She had been doing this for hours, she was sure of it. Where was her instructor?

Had he not promised that he would return to her in one hour? Never before had her previous tutor broken his word to…wait, this was not Anshar who was teaching them anymore. This was Professor Zwevezele Decimus of Saturn, a middle aged man who hated small children and only taught them because he had been commissioned by their own royal families to do so. Of course this task was the perfect punishment. One in which the teacher could leave his pupil to their assigned tasks and leave, without having to return… _He would have had me huddling out here all night, suffering like some sort of wretched animal!_

Entarais closed her eyes in anger. _The bloody liar! _The Neptunian princess's cheeks reddened in embarrassment as her aching knees and bleeding calloused hands cried out in indignation. Never had she been more angry or humiliated in her entire young life. _**That rotten liar!**_

Entarais sat back on her haunches and tossed the wash rag into the bucket forcefully, causing the dirty contents to fly up towards her with a loud splash. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and stood, brushing off the moist dirt clinging to the knees of her trousers from her crawl across the courtyard, allowing it to fall passively back on to the stones it had come from in the first place. She was not going to endure this disgrace any longer, Professor Zwevezele be damned!

Entarais sighed. Her aunt and uncle back home would not appreciate her decision, but as far as she was concerned, you are only ever in trouble if you get caught and so she jumped off of the courtyard's slight height and began to wander off across the castle grounds.

The little Neptunian sprite was determined to make the remaining afternoon hours hers yet.

----

Entarais was skipping rocks along the bright green waters of the Via Caia, the Andvarinaut Valley's dividing river. The swerving, trickling waters carried the cadence of a beautiful symphony drumming in her ears. Water had always been a comfort to her and, to some extent, her guiding grace. The current always seemed to direct her towards the correct path. It was in peaceful moments like this that Entarais recalled the story her uncle had told her of their first great ancestor, Emperor Poseidon.

Long ago, in Neptune's infancy, when the empire was but a small group of unorganized cities and port towns, Poseidon was the prince of the fledging nation. He was young, an inspiring painter who dreamed almost constantly, instead of focusing on the here and now of his own time. Not many thought that his rule would not amount to greatness of any type. Indeed the melancholy council of elders had seen young men of his make before, the steady dreamer who charismatically promises great things to the downtrodden of his planet, promises often never realized. The people had lost faith in the strength of their republic. The form of government was not weak in itself, simply new and difficult to maintain properly. The vast majority of Neptune's inhabitants were fishermen or mariners, not owning land, but living on their ships or on larger boarding vessels. Furthermore, there was very little equality of opportunity. Men and woman often took up their parents' occupations, not striving for anything better because in truth, there was nothing better. All opportunities were locked within the constraints of preexisting classes with fortune favoring only those in society who could afford to pay for its whims. Freedom, now there was a whimsical idea.

Then there came the young prince with an eye for change and the will and means to procure it. Since Entarais was a very small child, she could remember hearing stories of his valor and bravery, not so much on the battlefield; but audacity takes many different forms. Change does not come easy and least ways in a society which had no precedents for it. Neptune was much like its twin Uranus in those days, but thanks to Poseidon, its society was able to evolve past its own base instincts and into a place where people from every possible planet could come and with their own ideas contribute to its culture. Those, exiles most prominently, who had artistic ideals that other races heralded as radical could come to Neptune and give their dreams a starting point in reality.

As a result, Neptunian architecture, art, and culture became the most advanced and sought after in the galaxy next to that of the immortal Plutonians. In worship of the great prince who spawned all of this, there were statues of the legendary Poseidon in cities new and old all over the planet. He was not someone who could be forgotten lightly. Entarais never had been allowed to forget.

When she was four years old her uncle had taken both her and his son Mariner to the fountain which spiraled up from the center of their palace courtyard. There standing atop it was a stone figure of an older man, with a beard regally trimmed and dressed with the emblems and garments which symbolized their nation: the sailor's cloak, a looking glass tucked beneath one arm along with an astrolabe in the other hand which was outstretched in the direction of the sea which now bears his name. There, Emperor Triton had begun reciting to them the story. Though this had happened a few years ago now, Entarais could still remember the awe in her uncle's voice as he spoke and the light which flooded into his eyes when he spoke of the great deeds which had been done long before his time. It had amazed the young Neptunian princess for she had very seldom been granted the opportunity to see that look grace his face which only amplified the greatness of the old Emperor's legend in her eyes.

It was a story which, no doubt, was being told over and over that day in almost every household for it was the day of Poseidon's honor, but since that day, Entarais had taken the time to think. For all of those who's names live on in history, how much of their legends are true? Is it even possible to tell in the present how much someone's story could be embellished from what it was in the past? How could, they the spectators, maintain the truth of it or did anyone really want to know the truth when they were so entertained by the added lies? How they separate Poseidon the man from Poseidon the myth? She also wondered what people would think of her uncle long after he was gone. Would they know how hard he had struggled to keep the family together? Know how kind and generous his heart was and how fiercely he loved and protected those close to him? How could they? It was quite a different thing to know the man himself instead of just the name and facts.

The young princess was certain their names would live on in history forever in some way, shape or form, but only their names would remain; not their memories. How much of themselves would they be giving up for the lives they were expected to live? What was their purpose? To rule and to serve, this mantra had been drilled in the heads of every young prince and princess since the fall of the nine and it was not about to change. Whichever direction society was bound to go in, she was certain it would not change so much. Sometimes she wondered what life would be like for them when their education ended and they were forced to return to their parents. After having this type of freedom, would they be able to go back to the type of life which was expected of them? To give up their right to chose and have what they wanted or thought best? She already knew the answer to those questions, but couldn't bring herself to think about them at the moment.

Entarais picked up another rock and threw it with a graceful side motion across the water. The small gray stone bounced off of the rippling surface twice and then sank in one fell swoop into the dark recesses below.

_Just like us,_ she thought to herself, _just like us._

Entarais was suddenly stirred from her musings by a rustling in the bushes behind her. She turned, her body tense and ready, cerulean blue eyes alert. Emerging from the undergrowth were two men. One, was large in every aspect of the word, his broad meaty shoulders and the arms they powered looked strong enough to rip her in half in a second's time. The other was shorter and gaunt as a soldier's glove, but his face was scrunched up into a more compromising space though his jaw seemed to extend beyond the reach of his mouth giving a fierce look. They were both dressed in tunics which were fraying at the edges and drenched in mud. Slung over his shoulder, the big man carried a sack which even his powerful arms strained to hold steady against his back. Though they had emerged from the wood right behind her, neither one gave any indication that they had seen her.

The shorter one turned to the larger, appraising whether he could really carry the load her had been given, "Well, do you have it or do I have to come over their and smack you until you can hold it straight?"

The giant steadied himself on his feet and pulled the straining leather pack farther up on his shoulder, "No, no I got it."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, yeah boss, I got it."

The small man planted himself squarely before his larger companion, pulling his shoulders back and puffing out his chest to seem more intimidating, "Now, you listen here. When Lord Anslem leaves for Mercury we'll have the run of all this place. This here is our head start. We have to establish our status with the other opportunists so we'll be feared enough to be left alone when the soldiers quartered here leave. You got that? This is just the beginning stipend courtesy of Draupnir Castle. Don't you see, we'll be rich as fleas in the cookhouse by the time Anslem actually leaves?!"

Entarais had snuck back to the bank, using the slight slope as cover as she squatted behind it. _So they're the ones,_ Entarais thought to herself. The royal children had heard gossip from some of the servants that there had been a number of robberies in the area and that the castle guard had not been able to apprehend the bandits because they were always able to get away. Still, perhaps it was a little far fetched to think that this Goliath and David team could run that fast or be that light on their feet. Even if she did doubt it, Entarais was in no hurry to test that theory anytime soon. She decided it best that she slink away down towards the river and then follow it against the slope until she would be able to take cover in the surrounding forests. But still a small part of her mind nagged at her, that she had to do something about this. The other side of her told her that she was just a little girl and that there was nothing in earnest that she could do that wouldn't cause harm to herself, but the stubborn part lingered that it was not her place to run away from this. She was a royal and why was it that out of a line up of men, the royal ones would be those who led from the back while the farmer would be the fist to charge forward and defend his lands. Why the difference?

"Hey, boss?" the giant nudged the other who staggered from the force of the gesture, "What's that?"

The little man brushed his dirty hands against his muddy clothes, "What's what?"

The larger criminal took his free hand and grabbed the other's chin between his monstrous fingers and lifted up his head so his gaze met that of the astonished and frightened Neptunian princess.

"Well, well, now what do we have here?" the man took a step forward and Entarais instinctively crawled backwards. "What do you think you're doing listening in on our conversation? Didn't your parents teach you any manners?" When Entarais didn't say anything, the man's face scrunched up more, but then he took in her clothes and the fact that she was dressed better than most other children in this valley would have the means to be. His lips curved upward in a feral grin, "your're one of those royal brats being schooled at the castle, aren't you? Come here, we won't bite."

Contrary to his words, Entarais backed up again and in response the larger thief took a step forward until the smaller of the two gestured for him to stop, "Hey now, little girl there's no reason we can't be friends." Then he turned to his partner in crime and said softly, "forget the bag, think of the amount of gold we could grate from Anslem if we take her with us."

They both looked at one another and grinned knowingly, but when they turned back to the bank they found the child missing and the undergrowth nearest the trees rustling.

"Hey!" the little man started running for the bushes, but stopped half way when his partner did not follow, "What do you think you're doing. Forget the sack and get after her!"

The other blinked dumbly and nodded, dropping the heavy sack of gold and other such items to the ground before they broke into a solid run through the trees.

----

"What was that?" Orion asked turning to stare up at the now gray sky above.

"You're just stalling because you don't want to lose." Sinis argued. "One more round and then you can whine."

"No, I thought I felt a raindrop." Orion said, looking back down at Sinis whom he was sitting beside and then up at the sky above them.

Another fat drop of water landed on Alexandra's bare shoulder and then one on Anna's forehead.

Lucretia noticed this and stood, extending her hand to the Venian princess to help her up as well.

"It is about to storm." The Marian, always the one among the royal children who excepted the hard reality of their world the easiest, said cryptically, "we need to find shelter somewhere."

Alexandra covered her head with her arms as the drops began to fall in rapid succession above them. "But where do we go to? The castle is miles from here."

Anna hopped down from the boulder she had been perched on. "The castle is too far we'll have to take our chances in the forest. The trees will give us partial cover in there."

The moved as a cohesive unit in to the trees without argument. The green canopy hampered the falling drops of unforgiving moisture on their way down so that they only came to the children below in dull streams or weakened drips. The wood was still and no noises came from the surrounding area other than the light pitter-patting of the rain. They moved through the trees cautiously for this part of Saturn was not one they had been told it was safe to move around in unescorted, but being children and adventurous souls always in conflict with reason they had decided to wander into the valley on their own anyway.

So further they trudged on, Anna in the lead with Sinis directly behind her followed closely by Lucretia, Alexandria, and Orion. A few times they had to brace their footing against the trunk of a tree because the forest floor was becoming muddy with the rain and the moss on the trees made them difficult to grip. On one such occasion, Alexandria slipped and was unable to catch herself, but Lucretia slung an arm around her waist and stopped her before her own momentum caused her to fall to the ground. The Venian had been embarrassed about it afterwards, but she smiled gratefully with ivory cheeks aflame and they continued as they had begun.

Finally, they reached a glade of hemlocks and Anna stopped them.

"What is it?" Sinis questioned impatiently.

"It's a glade." Anna appraised, her eyes studying the dark emerald canopy of leaves overhead. The branches from a few different trees had grown together here and so created a better shelter for them than could anything else. "Stay here and wait a moment."

Anna stepped into the glade from the small sloping entrance which had a webbing of roots running over the ground as though it were a stairway into another world. From their limited view on the outside it had been hard to tell if there was anyone residing in the small space or not, but now that Anna was in it she could tell there was no one. Her emerald eyes widened as she stepped into the center of it. The place was amazing! The trees and undergrowth created a solidly walled in arena around the grass clearing in the center and as if lining each boundary in warning was a small patch of hemlock completing the ensemble.

"What do you see?" Orion called to her from the outside.

She heard a scuffle and then Sinis's voice replaced that of the intellectual prince.

"Anna, we are coming down." Sinis said, beginning the short descent downwards, Lucretia following in his wake while Alexandra stayed behind and helped Orion up from where Sinis had pushed him down to the ground.

"By the gods…" Sinis trailed off in astonishment as he stepped fully into the grass circle.

Lucretia halted behind him and took in the sight of the rich green canopy above them where the gray of the clouds above dulled the light illuminating the leaves. She was about to take a step forward, when she heard a scratch against wet bark behind her and she turned to help Alexandra down from the pathway with Orion unsteadily in toe behind her.

"Look at this!" Alexandra exclaimed as she took in the sight.

"Wow." Orion commented dryly trying in vain to brush away the grass and mud stains from his blue tunic. "Not worth being brushed aside over I would dare say."

"Oh, don't be so sore!" Sinis shot back without taking his eyes from where they were scanning the enclosing trees.

"This is…amazing." Alexandra went on.

Lucretia turned to her and caught the look of wonder in those eyes before they were turned away from her line of vision. Still, the feeling lingered in the air and inwardly the Marian princess smiled.

"We should rest here until the rain stops." Anna said.

"Are you sure this in not an area inhabited by someone else?" Orion asked apprehensively as he noted that some of the hemlocks were laid close to the ground as if someone or some creature had slept there.

Sinis turned to him and sneered, "Do you see anyone here, Orion, do you?"

"I agree." Alexandria said coming nearer to Anna in the center where all of the branches from different species of trees connected and had come to grow together over time. "We should stay here."

"Then it's settled."

----

Entarais ran as fast as her short legs could carry her. Fear was streaming through her to the very core of her being. Her thoughts were all jumbled within her head, none of them making sense or giving her any possible contemplation of escape. Nothing else mattered in her mind but survival. She could not force herself to turn around. Could not force herself to stop and hide for fear that her limbs would freeze to the ground in horror. The terrain in the valley was rocky, with short green grass covering every inch of the wooded area. The dense trees made deciphering whether or not an unexpected drop in elevation or large rock awaited anyone running on her path and so Entarais was fleeing from her pursuers, almost entirely blind to the dangers ahead.

The sounds of yelling voices and racing foot falls reached the heightened hearing of the Neptunian princess. Her pursuers were close behind her now and coming closer with every moment her tired legs began to feel like jelly, but far enough away that she seemed to be only a fleeing speck before them. The foot falls became more prominent in her ears as adrenaline rushed through her veins, compelling her to push her tiny body to run faster, but to no avail. Their longer legs gave them the advantage of speed as they raced to catch her.

The Neptunian princess entered a thick patch of brush, which scratched her in the face and on her arms and legs. It was dense here, so that she could not tell what lay ahead of her. Entarais had made it about ten leagues into this dense undergrowth when a branch of a thorn bush caught her by the shoulder of her blue tunic, restraining her from fleeing any further.

The hasty foot steps had stopped, replaced with the murmuring of voices of her trackers. Her heart beating in her ears and the rasping movement of her labored breathing were making their words unintelligible, but despite that truth her timid ears still yearned to hear them as she stood still and stopped moving completely. The whisper of low voices abruptly ceased and the young girl held her breath nervously.

Then a sound of crunching twigs and breaking branches evaded her ears. _What? What is that?_ She leaned forward and strained to hear the foreign noise again. Just as Entarais leaned close to the trunk of a nearby tree, sheltered by its leaves, a flash of metal accompanies the strange clatter again in the distance bushes. Entarais rapidly startled in fear. _They are cutting their way towards me! _They were hacking a path through the undergrowth to find her, following the foot prints her sandaled feet had left behind. She pulled at the thorn's hold on her shoulder desperately as if she were a wounded beast fighting to survive.

The thorn's grip on her clothed shoulder gave with a tear, slicing a chunk of flesh painfully from her skin, but she was undaunted by its sting. Entarais tore her way through the affronting branches, cutting her skin in the process, but she did not care. _Better my arms and legs than my neck._ Suddenly, as she tore a rather thick branch out from in front of her and continued to run, the ground beneath her sloped downwards and she fell.

She fell through tree branches and tall thorn bushes before finally hitting her last obstacle. The shrubbery below her broke her fall as she fell through the branches, the green leaves bouncing back into their previous place before her untimely descent above her head as Entarais hit the ground with an agonizing thud and a loud groan.

"Down here! I heard something!" One of the criminals shouted as he slid down the rocky slope, holding onto a mossy vine to ensure his safety until his feet hit flat ground.

Entarais shrank back in her hiding place against a large boulder at her back praying to all the gods she had ever heard of that the canopy of dense leaves and branches of the bushes around and above her would hide her from the penetrating gaze. Her uncle had always taught her that it was normal to feel fear, but she was shaking with terror and trying with all or her might to control the intense urge she had to race from the undergrowth and away from the approaching threats. They were close now, the muddy leather boots of the first man showing from under the branches of the bush before her. Entarais was certain that her heart was as loud to the man hovering above her as it was pounding in her ears. The boots at the base of the bush gradually began to step away slowly.

"No. Whatever it was, it did not fall over here." The first immoral man yelled back to his partner in crime.

Entarais leaned her full weight back against the boulder at her back as she breathed a very audible sigh of relief.

"What was that noise?" the second criminal's stupid voice questioned.

Entarais brought her hands up to her mouth quickly and held her breath, praying that it had not been her they had heard.

"What noise?" The first man asked as he ruffled the leaves of the close by undergrowth in search of their quarry. "Drifus, are your ears playing tricks on you again?"

"If they are, then they must be very well thought out tricks." Drifus, the stupid man, commented. "I must've been hear'n things."

Then the smarter man turned, his ears hearing a strange sound now. "Did you hear that, Drifus?"

"Hear what, Segal?" The dumb oaf stared up blankly at the man to his left. "Are your 'ars playing tricksies on you too?"

"No!" Segal snapped as he gazed out into the branches looking for something specific. "I distinctly heard a small sound, a whimper it reminded me of."

_A whimper? I did not whimper._ Entarais's lungs suddenly filled with air as she remembered how to breath once more. The two men moved forward as the sound resounded again through the brush. Segal pulled a sword from his belt and slashed through a branch, throwing the discarded piece of wood to the side. They continued beating their way through the brush, eventually leaving Entarais's line of vision. She was torn between two choices, she did not want to be caught for her foolishness and yet she desperately wanted to know where that sound was coming from and who was making it. So against her better judgment, she crawled haphazardly to the next bush and then to the next, keeping herself as hidden as possible beneath the under growth and silent. The brush was hacked through and a clearing became visible to the two men and to the girl crawling at boot level three feet across from them, fending her own way through the scrub. Finally and with much difficulty, cerulean eyes managed to edge close to the outcrop of underbrush where it begins to circle the small clearing so that they could see all that transpired within their line of vision.

It was a girl, not that much older than herself, with ebony hair and violet eyes. She was sobbing on her knees in the clearing.

"There." Segal whispered, trying to remain as silent as possible as they snuck up on the innocent child.

Then the big man's clumsy boot stepped on a twig, its cracking sound resonating through the peaceful clearing with the explosive shock of a bomb. The sobbing child winced and spun around wildly in fear.

"Bloody Idiot!" Segal whispered under his breath as he stepped forward trying to appear as friendly as possible, "Who are you child? Are you lost?"

The girl took a frightened step back ward and sniffed, "Yes. Were you sent to find me?"

"Yes." Segal lied outright. "Now come, we will lead you back to your home."

The girl still seemed frightened, but she swallowed back another sob and walked forward towards the two strangers.

_No!_ Entarais's mind screamed _Don't trust them! No! What are you doing? Run!_ She wanted to run to the girl, to tell the truth, to save her from them; but her feet were rooted to the ground in fright. She could do nothing, but wait and watch. Entarais watched as the big man's hand flew forward light lightening and grabbed the cloak of the small girl, cringing helplessly as the girl screamed in terror.

"Little runt!" Segal seethed in her face. "Thought you could out run us down and get away did you?!"

"No, sir! Please leave me be!!" She cried. She had not been the one to evade them and incure their wrath, Entarais had. It was all of her fault.

Entarais scrambled forward and latched on to the big man holding the girl. The great oaf turned and stared at her surprised, he was dumfounded. Wasn't there only supposed to be one girl.

"What's this?!" Segal exclaimed, his eyes wide as he recognized her. "You're the one…"

"Yes, yes it was me, just…please," Entarais closed her eyes as the raging adrenaline and fear were manifesting themselves in tears she was squeezing her eyes shut to ward off. "Do not harm this girl!"

The stupid over sized lout reached out a great paw and smacked Entarais back to land hard against the muddied ground, a red welt already burning smartly against her cheek.

"You stinker!" The towering git shouted down at her causing Entarais to crawl back a step. "I'll show you, I'll show all of your kind."

And with that he reached out and grabbed the girl's neck in a stranglehold and she screamed.

"No!" Entarais yelled and with all of her might she rushed the larger man, but all he need do against someone so young was bring his knee up to strike her chin and as her teeth clanked painfully together, she fell back again, a small stream of blood flowing down her chin from her cut lower lip. Still she fought against it all, the pain, fate, them. "No!!"

Pushing herself up to her knees, Entarais prepared to rush him again, but Segal had lifted his leg and kicked her back down on the ground, extending his mud covered boot onto Entarais lower back, forcing her back down to the ground. She fought against the pressure, but was unable to get up again. Still, she fought, moving any way she could to get him away from her and she from him. "Get off!"

"Stop struggling you little, brat!" Segal lifted his foot and forcefully kicked her down again and then another time and again, smiling with rottenly grit teeth at her futile attempts. He wanted nothing more than to break her spirit and there was nothing more which did it than a sound beating.

The next time he lifted his boot she took the opportunity to roll over and away, but she did not get far. He pulled out his dagger and hit her upside the head with the silver butt of it, causing a modest squirt of blood to spurt from the tiny forced opening at her temple. Entarais gritted her teeth as pain flooded through her small frame and every aggravated nerve warned her of the fire burning in her head. She lay prostrate and all of the fierce sensations seized her and the screams from the other little girl rang in her ears as she wallowed in unconscious darkness.

"Had enough, have you?" The man asked above her.

Entarais opened her eyes as the ache began to subside and the adrenaline renewed itself in her veins. Her right mind told her to stay down, but her indomitable spirit refused to give way. Slowly she raised her self up on her side. No sooner had she crawled an inch to the giant than the felt and sharp pain in her lower back. Segal, fed up with her, had knelt down and stabbed her in the back with his dagger. Entarais gasped in pain as every breath she took began to become an invisible burden weighing itself upon her shoulders. She bent her head to the ground as Segal twisted the blade in her back and then retracted it whilst she bit her lip to keep out all screams.

Segal stepped back with satisfaction and returned his attention to the larger man. "Have done with her then."

Entarais rolled over feeling her life seep out through the hole in her back, but still she would not give in. "No!" With a feeble breath and great physicality she lifted herself up and leapt at the man.

Not expecting the added weight that pushed against his kneecaps, the giant oaf fell to his knees forcing himself to drop the other girl as Entarais too fell. She rolled over and yelled against the searing fire in her back. "Run!"

The other girl reached up and held her own wounded neck, but did not move otherwise. Entarais wished to yell out to her again, but Segal had grabbed hold of her legs and was pulling her back, but she had grabbed onto the giant man's arm and stubbornly refused to let go. The other latched out and hit Entarais causing her body, in its waning strength, to fall to the ground and not to get up again. Entarais rolled onto her back, breathing heavily with every shallowing breath. She shuddered as she felt the rain again begin to fall, drops landing on her face and in her mouth. She heard the other girl scream and the giant regained his feet and grabbed her again, heard the sickening crack and the bones in her neck shifted under the force of his hands and broke, but she could not get up to do anything.

Entarais opened her eyes and saw Segal leaning over her, grinning at her with his rotten teeth. Then he retracted his left leg and kicked her across the face and immediately she knew nothing more of the world around her.

* * *

**Author's Note: **This chapter has taken forever to write and I will tell you why. All of these ideas have kept popping into my mind and flying right out onto the page. At first I told myself that this would be a 10 page chapter, then it became 20 then 26 and it is still growing. As so I do not feel like I have to hack it to shreds, I have decided to post it in two parts so that it can be better enjoyed, give my readers a break between chapters, and me more ample time to work on and edit the other half. Thank you all for your patience, I really do appreciate it and I hope you like this chapter. Whatever you do think, leave a review and let me know. If you think it is good that's fine, but I can't learn anything as a writer just from that general phrase 'good' so I dare all of you readers out there to be completely honest. If it sucks, then tell me in no less watered down language that it does and why you do feel thus so strongly. If you enjoyed it, then let me know why. If you want to see something changed, drop that down too. Anything and everything, my quill lays down a foundation for open ears. Read and review, thanks! 


	9. The Power of Choices Part 2

**Chapter 8: The Power of Choices part 2**

_**King Elieon's reign upon the moon 576**_

_**Andvarinaut Valley, Saturn**_

_**Draupnir Castle**_

People as well as children are always at risk from the times and their ability to change on a dime or at the whim of some higher power. No one grieved for that truth more than the royal children as they braced themselves beneath the protective forest canopy as a torrent of violent rainwater erupted from over head, crashing upon the shielding leaves loudly.

"Batten down the hatches." Sinis said standing up from where the group had been sitting almost in a semicircle on the grass. "Beware friends, here it comes!"

Orion grabbed at Sinis' pant leg and yanked him back to fall to his butt upon the ground with a grunt, "Sit down you fool."

"At least we're sheltered from the worst of it in here." Anna uttered calmly, sitting unmoving, her long arms wrapped loosely around her knees.

Lucretia nodded deftly as Alexandra watched the little droplets of rain as they ran in quiet streams across the branches of the canopy of green above and then dripped down in small rivers steadily about the clearing.

"I…" Alexandra caught a wayward drop as it fell from the canopy above and hit the palm of her small ivory hand, transparent without any hint of the characteristic foreshadowing color a drop of blood has. "I feel safe here."

"Why am I a fool?" Sinis asked defensively.

"Because you are careless, obstinate, and crass." Orion retorted bitterly. "Do you need more of a reason?"

"That's practically a compliment!" Sinis jeered, clapping Orion hard on the back so he saddled forward towards the long grass at his feet.

Silently, Anna found herself thanking whatever good spirits who had permitted their passage into the glade. It was a subtle gift which the others she realized, as they laughed and talked around her, had not taken into account. She turned her head and caught Lucretia's gaze and recognized the comprehension in her eyes and knew that the she and the Marian princess were the only two who understood the significance of such good fortune. Perhaps, it was the fact that on their two planets the virtue and nature of the survival of a few was based on the uprising of fortune such as this and the good sense to recognize it.

Venus, Mercury, and Saturn were well populated with vast cities and trading settlements, and as such, they were used to a far richer lifestyle than that of their Marian compatriot or their Jovian comrade. It was far more difficult a thing for them at this age to comprehend how fortunate they indeed were.

Anna mused to herself with an inward smile, _Perhaps what they say is true, fortune does favor the bold._ She allowed herself a small swell of pride, but relinquished it quickly and laid back, closing her eyes comfortably. For how ever long this false childhood was to last, she would strive to enjoy it before she was forced to grow up, to be dutiful and sacrifice her wants for her people's needs. Anna would gladly do it, she would see her people through whatever hardships may fall over them and do her best to keep the peace on Jupiter. It was a duty which had been bred into her veins, instilled so deep into her being that she could not tell her restless soul how to escape it anymore.

Lucretia remained restlessly alert. Although she knew she and Anna both understood the importance of their stumbling upon a place such as this uninhabited, the Marian could not bring herself to relax in the comfortable environment surrounding them. Jupiter, though it was a tribal nation much like Mars with a vast undiscovered wilderness, was far more inhabitable and hospitable than the lands of Lucretia's birth. Its tribes did not fight with one another, instead they had united a number of years ago in a tribal alliance which ensured constant peace between them. It was also a widely known fact that Jupiter's grand army, the largest and most powerful out of all of the nine planets, was kept solely in service as a guard against foreign attackers. So it was in this way that the nation of Jupiter was secure. Not only did it have a great army to squash any invading force, but if by chance a foreign invader were to escape into the wilderness, the likelihood of their survival would be slim, close to naught.

On Mars, however, one's neighbors were their enemies. Wandering too far into another's lands ensured an untimely death for anyone with the tenacity to trespass outside of their own borders. Men, women, children death did not distinguish between the masses. Within one's own ilk there was safety, outside of those bounds there was only uncertainty and the unknown. This knowledge is what had made Lucretia initially hesitant to trust anyone of these children upon first meeting them for she had never trusted anyone outside of her own tribe before, but her companions had proven their worth over the past year and had become a cohesive group of individuals, the kind Lucretia was used to being with and so she had come to trust this her new family with her life.

All except for one individual that was. Sinis of Saturn unnerved her. He seemed very closed off to the other members of the group and Orion was the only one he really played with, if at all.

It was not his quietness which bothered her, for she was also guilty of keeping her own personal matters to herself, but something in the way he looked at all of them. It was almost as though he felt he was better than his other companions and it was not a thought which settled well with Lucretia. A member of a group who thought himself better than the group at times was just a hindrance to the rest of his companions and couldn't be of any good to anyone.

Alexandra rested comfortably beside her, the light breeze funneling through the canopy swaying her golden tresses around her smartly as she slept. Lucretia would keep a watchful eye for strangers who should think to sneak up on them and especially on one of their own, Sinis.

A short distance away from the other lounging children, Orion continued to explore the glade to his heart's content. He was busying himself noting the differences between the sorted fruit and leaf shape of the different kinds of bushes surrounding them. Beneath one opal shaped leaf, he discovered a cocoon nestled comfortably in a secret glade of its own away from the world. Just as he was about to move on to discover something else, movement came from within the cocoon's leathery skin. As curious blue eyes took in the tiny development, Sinis moved up behind him.

"What did you find?" Sinis asked with a small amount of genuine interest.

Orion grabbed at the other's shoulder and pulled him forward by his cloak. "Look! A cocoon and if my judgment is correct, it the butterfly within is just about to emerge."

"Seems so." Sinis let a small smile touch his lips at his younger friend's enthusiasm. "You're very seldom wrong, my friend. That's a fact."

"Look, look!" Orion gestured to his comrade excitedly. "It's emerging!"

Sinis squinted from his vantage point and sure enough, out from the grey leathery skin of the cocoon was crawling slowly a bright blue butterfly with its wings still folded upon its back. Both boys were somewhat in awe of this little creature being reborn boldly into the dangerous world. So small and yet so brave a thing, Sinis thought, to venture out into the world when there was a chance of safety one chose to leave. Brave little butterfly, just like them. It was so peaceful and defenseless. So poor and without any knowledge of the world it was about to enter. How sad a thing it was, that it could not see the horrors it was up against? How merciless things could really get. It was almost too hard to bear.

Bending down, Sinis picked up a stick laying at his feet and with all of his strength he lashed out and swatted the cocoon and butterfly with it against the branch it had been hanging from and both fell to the grass below. Orion let out a squeal of horror as he bent down and searched through the long grass frantically for the lost butterfly. Sinis swallowed his own surprise and watched over the boy's shoulder, the stick still dangling loosely at his side.

Anna shot up smartly from her resting position to her feet along with Lucretia while Alexandria started awake at the squeal.

"What is it?! What's the matter?" Anna asked, rushing over to the two boys.

Alexandra stood and walked over to stand beside Orion peering down at where he was holding a seizing creature in his hands and weeping. Slowly, she knelt down beside him, her hand on his shoulder and reached out to open his closed hands which were resting on the ground.

"No!" Orion cried and just as quickly pulled his clasped hands protectively back to his chest.

"It's alright, Orion." Alexandra soothed, rubbing his back comfortingly.

"No it's not! It'll never be alright again!" He wailed.

As the youngest of their troop, Orion was still prone to fits of tears and wailing from time to time. Lucretia came up behind then both and then rounded on Sinis.

"What did you do to him?" She asked him harshly.

"What makes you think I did something to him?!" Sinis shouted back angrily.

"Well, who else was over here with him?!" Lucretia matched his volume and intensity.

"Stop, stop it, both of you!" Anna admonished them both into silence. "Arguing the point about whose fault it is won't change the fact that it happened."

"All of you, please." Alexandra interjected calmly. "Orion needs us. We shouldn't argue with each other, it'll just make the situation worse."

They were all quiet after that. The only sound which could be heard above the breeze for those few minutes were the sniffles and hitches of the weeping Mercurian. All the while, Alexandra sat by and continued her ministrations on Orion's back quietly. As his fits subsided, Orion's grip lessened and he let his still closed hands fall to the ground softly.

Alexandra reached forward and covered his hands with one of her own gently. "May I see?"

Orion sniffled and nodded opening his hands, he allowed Alexandra her first look at the small butterfly in its last struggling throes of life. Her reaction, to be quite frank, was not what Lucretia had expected. Alexandra did not shy away or lose her nerve because she was looking at a dead thing, instead she slanted her head to one side as though curiously studying it. Sinis had to admit that, even in death, the butterfly was even more striking than it had been in life. Its black and blue wings were spread out to reveal its back elegantly and the moisture on it which had not yet dried from the cocoon, had an ethereal silver gleam to it. Even Orion was stunned into hiccupped silence at the sight.

Anna took the most notice of the blue and silver mixed. It's the same color as Entarais eyes, Anna contemplated, with a sheen of tears glossed over them. How sad and beautiful a thing it was that two seemingly unconnected things could mesh together to create such a breathtaking image. Like life and death, both equally beautiful and miserable at the same time.

Sinis dropped the stick to the ground. His body posture was loose and calm, but the light in his amethyst eyes had faded to a dull glow and there was a gloss of unshed tears moistening his eye lids. It was the right thing to do right? He had saved the naïve creature from the fate of being eaten by a ruthless hawk or of dying after only one week of life as was common for the species. The butterfly had been given life and he had given it mercy. What was wrong with that? But leaning forward, looking down upon Orion, he knew there had been.

Orion sniffled and gently laid the prone and stiffening form of the deceased butterfly in the dirt. As he lifted an arm to cover his eyes, Alexandra leaned forward and whispered something to him that was too low for the others to hear and the younger of the two nodded before standing reverently and allowing the Venian to lead him away.

Anna turned to see that Lucretia was staring distractedly after them, one hand gripping the hilt of the dagger at her belt rather tightly. She noticed the change in the mood of her friend almost immediately, but ignored it in favor of focusing on Sinis who was now kneeling before where the dead butterfly was laying. She took a few steps forward to better see what he was doing. He had his hands clasped to his chest and she noticed almost immediately that the body of the tiny creature was nowhere to be seen anywhere on the ground. Sinis' lips were moving and he was chanting something to himself in a whispered tone which she could not discern. His hands suddenly looked orange as though he had caught a couple fireflies between them and they were glowing from within.

Anna rubbed her eyes hard and then looked again. She wasn't sure if she was seeing things correctly or if the day simply was playing tricks on her. But when she opened up her eyes for the second time, the sight was still the same. It was official, she was not seeing things.

Sinis took a deep breath and lowered his hands in front of him as though praying and then opened them. Anna's jaw dropped as she saw the newly reborn butterfly, alive now in splendid glory, fly out of his hands in a flutter of wings back to the safety of the trees.

"Go my little friend. Perhaps I was wrong." Sinis reached up and rubbed his eyes before allowing his hand to fall to his side. "You go and live your life to the fullest for the both of us now that you have a second chance to live it."

Anna closed her mouth politely and watched still awed as Sinis stood and walked away in the same direction both Alexandra and Orion had set off in. Lucretia took a deep breath and continued on after Sinis, not having seen what he had done.

High above them, the invisible sky hidden beyond the canopy of green leaves erupted in a loud explosion of vengeful thunder.

"Through the mouth and over the gums, watch out stomach, here it comes." Sinis said, almost to himself as the gears of storm wound around and around prepping for another explosion.

Orion sniffed and wiped his runny nose on the sleeve of his tunic. "Oh no"

"Ugh, not again." Alexandra complained with a sigh.

Anna moved to the center of the glade and played silent witness as the canopy above was separated and jostled from side to side violently, unforgiving winds suddenly whipping frighteningly around them. As the fiasco continued, two of the largest branches creaked and one fell just missing Sinis' shoulder in the process.

"What should we do?" Alexandra shouted over the howl of the winds.

"We need to move." Anna said. She didn't want to give the clouds a chance to regroup and leave them stranded in its wake without shelter.

Lucretia nodded and moved to usher the others out of the glade. The sooner they were able to get out of this death trap with all of its looming branches and crackling underbrush which could be pushed into them at any moment. They didn't know where they could run to for shelter or even if there was a safer place to go, but they had to try. Not trying because one assumes that there is nothing better is a self defeating prophecy.

Just as the sky opened up and dropped a curtain of pelting water droplets down on the children, the last of them ascended the entrance of the glade and they rushed back out into the unknown in search of safer ground.

--

_**King Elieon's reign upon the moon 586**_

_**Pella, Mars**_

_**The Festival of Anubus, the Marian God of war**_

A shrill wind sang through the equitable frigidity of the Marian night. No living, breathing soul who had never before in their lives ventured from their home worlds to experience the desolate plains of Mars would ever believe that the temperature of the planet of flame and war could drop so frightfully low once the sun sank past its lowest summit in the sky, but it did, oh how it did.

Tuireann pulled his heavy chalmys cape closer to his shivering form and pulled the scarf around his mouth and nose tighter against the renewed vigor of the wind. He had decided on walking from the launch pad on to the city of Pella and after twelve kilometers walked in the freezing cold and mocking winds, the young Jovian man could honestly admit that he had never made a more idiotic decision in the entirety of his young life. He groaned to himself as he took another step and felt a small army of sand particles filter into the heel of his sandaled foot. There was no use in stopping until he was well within the city walls.

Tonight was the night of the festival of Anubus. All those citizens well enough to travel had come in from the countryside before the night had fallen and safeguarded themselves within the cities walls for the festivities. The rest were left to the cruelty of chance and the winds. Anubus was no a god of mercy and so the negligence of his holy day for any given reason was grounds for punishment by the divine god himself. How or when was of no consequence, for the implications of wrought actions always came to pass upon a person in due time. It was not a Marian's prerogative to worry about what may come days they could not foresee, just to accept the hard facts of the lives they led. It was all that was required of them.

Tuireann paused on a small hill only momentary. He could barely tell the dark of the night from the obscure mass of swirling sand that surrounded him, but through the dense haze he thought he saw two precise and bright beacons of light braving the darkness in front of him. As quickly as he could, Tuireann gathered all the strength he could muster and gravitated towards them. As he got closer he recognized the solid exterior of the austere angular stone walls surrounding the capital city. He came closer, felt along for the gates, he knocked on them, but as expected no one opened them. With a tired groan he reached back to pull something from the pack slung over his shoulder, still taking refuge from the assaulting sand from behind the corner edge of the wall against the gate doors as he did so.

He pulled first a hook and then a long rope from within the sack and then knelt to tie them together securely in perfect unison. The wind was still blowing which would make the trajectory of the throw off, but he was sure he could still land and catch it on the top wall. Without hesitation, he left the protection of the alcove and snapped back into the company of the fierce, sand laden winds.

The Marian sentries patrolling the walls solemnly trod through the blowing sand, which did not filter to the other side of the wall into the city, being pelted repeatedly and painfully by the offensive particles. Maluginensis of Volsinii paced back and forth on his small section of wall. His hand held the short sword at his side in a vice grip which tightened every time a large gallop of sand smacked into a patch of uncovered skin on his neck or shoulders, many raw sores already lining the skin exposed above his collar. He had had it with this weather. A nephew of Parmellion and cousin of the king should not have to take this. He should be at the festival. This type of task in stormy weather such as this was for lesser men, not he.

His father was the Khan of Volsinii, one of the most desirable and richest khanates on the whole of the planet Mars. Maluginensis greatly resented his choice to devote himself to the king's service. He had done so out of hope for advancement as a reward for his fealty, but King Tarquinius had simply pledged him into the service of his brother, Prince Sejanus, who had put him on guard duty. Guard duty! Might as well have killed him and put his head on a spit! All opportunities were unattainable from this low a point on the totem pole by this time anyway so it would have been more merciful had his cousin just killed him instead.

He pulled at his trimmed beard through the fabric of the scarf protecting his face from the wind. He hated guard duty; he had come to the conclusion after about ten minutes of being out in the sandstorm. But there was nothing he could do, but weather the storm and serve his purpose. After all, his cousin was the king. He had expectations to live up to and standards to raise. He was not just a common soldier or royal relative. Maluginensis was Volsinii and Volsinii was power, real power in the north. Who knew, perhaps one day, if he played his cards right, he may even be king of Mars….

The thought brought a feral grin to his face, but before he could get too used to the inviting idea, the steel hilt of a wall hook was brought against his throat and he was pulled back into a much taller frame equal in strength to his own. He struggled against the grainy metal suppressing his windpipe, but the superior force of the being behind him won out and he lost consciousness within moments.

Tuireann slowly lowered the unconscious guard to the ground, careful that his movements did not make enough noise to arouse suspicion amongst the other guards, not that they would be able to easily hear him over the roar of the sand laden winds. This was the perfect weather for a foreign invader to transcend the usually impregnable battlements of the city. He lowered the guard in the corner and propped him up so that he appeared as though he had fallen asleep, then he turned to go, but thought better of it and turned back. Silently, he unclasped the man's thick cloak, so popular a style among the Marian elite, and clasped it over his own native chalmys cape so that no trace of the other could be seen by the unsuspecting eye.

For months he had been training on the plains of his own planet in the heavy heat and the increased shade of his skin gave him a look, still lighter than, but more similar than different to the exotic olive skin tone of members of the predominant Marian tribe: the Tarquins. The only thing he could not weather which separated him from all others was the color of his distinctly Jovian eyes. All Tarquin males had dark brown, nearly black eyes and only women of the royal line had violet or amethyst eyes while all members of the Sabine tribe had blue eyes. It was a Marian's most distinguishing trait, their eye color. It told of which ilk a person came from before they even opened their mouth. Not one within the Marian tribes had emerald eyes, not one, unless of course you were either of the lowest class, the helot slaves, whose blood lines were untraceable or of a mixed noble house which the Marians considered to be just as bad as the lowest class. Marians of mixed blood were frowned upon and children who were suspected of coming from a different race were killed young or hidden away to prevent any ill will from being harbored against the family's name.

Tuireann could not play the part of either a helot or of a titled man of mixed blood because either would be immediately done away with in the square. A helot who masqueraded as a khan would be stoned to death upon being found out and a noble man of mixed blood would meet an equal fate. He could simply not be found out. So the rendezvous would have to be quick. As he descended the stairs which lead down behind the wall, he gripped the stiletto knife tighter at his side. He was descending into foreign territory, a whole swimming valley of red and gold danced beneath him. As he came closer and realized that half of the façade was made up of the elaborate satin tents which lined the pathways.

Various men from every different walk of life each had a tent set up in front of their hovels at which they gave out treats and delicacies to those who passed by. One of the first tents was a washing station with lines and lines of marble basins full to the brim with scented and herbed oils which every festival goer was expected to wash their hands in. Tuireann walked to a basin and lowered his hands into a basin relatively full of herbed oil compared to those around it. It was citrus, there was a zest of fresh lime rising up from the vat languidly, every known scent from jasmine to rosemary wafting up into the air and consummating with one another like smoothly flowing liquid.

Once he had dried his hands he moved along the path ways. The bearded man from the first tent offered him a slice of flat bread with rarely cooked lamb's meat dripping with orange sauce on it, a delicacy and the religious meat of choice on Mars. Put shortly, it was something every Marian citizen, particularly the men were expected to eat as a part of tradition. Tuireann stuffed the entire concoction into his mouth and was at first put off by the sudden tang of the sauce, but once he began to chew he noticed the meat was lush and tender and the sauce, sweetening with every movement of his mouth, was rich and tenacious. The complicated taste of all of the rush of flavors overwhelmed his senses and he had to, much to the man's chagrin, refuse another helping of the delicious food. There was little wonder as to why this was a revered and rare delicacy dish on the Marian homeland.

When Tuireann was a child, his father had brought him to this very festival as a guest of his great Marian friend and later the man who would one day murder him in cold blood, Parmellion. At the time he had thought it odd that there was no official currency for the planet and that no one bought or sold anything in these tents, but that goods were merely given out. It was a custom which seemed to contradict the fact that Mars was the poorest planet out of the nine when it came to resources. Then his father had explained to him that on this one day a year, it is required of a Marian citizen to show kindness and generosity to those of his own ilk. Many of these men in the tents cooking and passing out food with their sons were Tarquins. If a Sabine were to walk by and they were to take notice, Tuireann had been told that such a man would not make it far into the festivities before he found a knife between his shoulder blades.

Even on the religious holidays, maybe especially even, the ancient blood feud was always honored and never forgotten. Old prejudices and ill wills died hard. It was misleading in a way. Everyone always assumed that Mars was a backwards nation, that they were barbarians without hearts and without souls. Tuireann believed in this mantra himself when it came to Marians. But no one would think without any former knowledge of the planet that Mars had as many separate and diverse tribes as it did. Looking from the outside in, it appeared that there was only one: the Tarquins. They were the ruling class, the minority, but also the majority in every way. Don't think leaders from other tribes didn't try to fight for their own representation. Oh, how they tried, but were beaten down brutally each time.

Anubus had not always been the principle deity on Mars. Indeed, members of every different tribe had their own religious traditions and their own gods, but where the Tarquin king took over, he impressed his religion upon all of his subjects with heinous punishments being enacted upon all of those who did not comply. It did not stop the people of the tribes from worshiping their own gods in private, but on the surface and in some form or fashion everyone paid tribute to Anubus. And the younger generation, no matter from which tribe, grew up worshipping a deity their parents despised, hence, the Tarquins had secured their own dynasty in another way by ensuring that their ways lived on in the people they had conquered.

Mars may have come a long way in a short number of years. It may have had itself a king and a monarchy, but it did not yet have for itself a government leastways one that was designed with the greater good of its people in mind.

At the next tent, Tuireann was approached by a veiled woman who did not look him in the eye as she handed him another piece of meat, a pheasant leg blackened from being cooked thoroughly at the hearth. He nodded his thanks, but she scurried away and did not see. On Mars, men ruled and women did not look a man, not even a foreign one, in the eye. He took a bite out of the drumstick and found that not only was it fabulously cooked wild pheasant, but that the inside beneath the meat and near the bone had been stuffed with ground pomegranates, peaches, and spices. It was sweet, but in a sour sort of a way.

On his way down the path, he made sure not to look anyone in the eye. But where was the main part of the festival being held? He was such a small boy the last time he had been here that he could no longer remember exactly where the square was and with every single alley way and street being decked out in every shade of red imaginable, it was like trying to navigate a map painting color blind. He had the lines, but what good where they when everything looked the same?

He could hear music coming from someplace, but it, much like the loudness of the paths, seemed like it was everywhere and nowhere in between all at the same time. Then there it was. Above the bead shaking instruments and drums which set the tumultuous rhythm of the place, the single slur of notes from a wood flute broke the atmosphere. Like a cobra under sway from the snake charmers sweet music, he followed the melody of the flute as it dove under the surface of the red all around him and surfaced again and again until he was practically running after the notes in the one direction he knew they had to be coming from.

Seeing that some others were staring at him strangely, Tuireann slowed his running pace to a quick walk and kept after the sound until it suddenly died and the subtle baritone note of the drums and heady panting of the bead shaking instruments ended the song. Still, even without the music to lead him on, he continued down the narrow alley way it had led him to situated snuggly between two rows of stacked mud brick homes. Carefully, he came upon the festival square where crowds of red again permeated throughout the area. Tuireann was briefly glad that he had decided to steal the cloak from that stupid guard still sleeping high up in one corner of the city walls after all. Otherwise, something told him that he would have been first on their stoning list for the evening.

Sitting around the absolute edge of the square closest to the show were the high ranking members of the Tarquin hierarchy.

Tuireann could not see many of their faces through the fragmented view left to him by the swirling crowd, but he knew they were there. Out of all of the ones he could see, there was one face he did recognize. That of the son of his father's murder and his closest childhood companion up to a certain point: Raiden, heir to the khanate of Diceto. The single most murderous of all men on the whole of Mars. By all accounts he was worse than his father. A killer even in his youth, he had taken to fighting with his father's serfs and then when he had beaten them, he would administer the killing blow and not one whom he fought ever survived his brutal treatment. Mercy was not a word synonymous with his name.

At the time that Raiden was doing these things, he and Tuireann were the best of friends. He had heard of these goings on, but had dismissed them as rumors. It was not until after his father's death that he began to believe what he had once thought impossible. The Raiden he knew was not a killer, at least not to him. He was at worst, arrogant and fool hardy, but those qualities could be prone to befall any boy of his age. Nothing was quite out of the ordinary right off of the bat with him. Oh, but was he ambitious! His ambitions had always separated him from the crowd and put him head and shoulders above the rest of the young khans his age.

The years had been kind to him, Tuireann noted. His long and lanky form had filled out into the stout, muscled form of a Tarquin warrior. He unlike most married men of his tribe, sported no whiskers or beard, but Tuireann would not venture to assume that a man of his stature, no matter how arrogant, could have dodged the responsibility of marriage. He wore a leather cuirass, as was the style with most high ranking warriors, with a cloak almost identical to the one Tuireann wore now shrouding the majority of the rest of his body. Even though he couldn't see it, he knew Raiden was carrying a sword on him plus a small assortment of other daggers hidden in various places on his person. No Marian warrior took a chance on his own life and Raiden would not be an exception in that respect.

Tuireann reached under his cloak and up to his neck. Resting there on a gold chain was the tooth of a jaguar. The great cat had attached Tuireann when he was a boy on Jupiter and almost killed him, but Raiden had slain the beast and carried him all of twenty miles back to his father's castle on his back. As Tuireann stroked the worn ivory surface of the tooth, he pondered what might have become of him had Raiden not risked his life to save his own. Slowly, his grip relaxed around the hilt of his stiletto.

He couldn't do it. He could not attack the man who as a boy had been closer to him than a brother, even if his father had murdered his own father, he could not blame him for it. Nor could he take out his anger and rage upon him as he had thought he might be able to. Tuireann took a deep breath and retreated a few steps back idly. Perhaps Parmeillion was not even present at the festival. Perhaps, he had made the year long trek for nothing. No! He pushed that thought aside and refused to indulge it, lest he lose all hope whatsoever of success.

For that one moment his guard was down and only a small fraction of time within that moment was needed for Maluginensis of Volsinii to sneak up on Tuireann from behind.

--

_**King Elieon's reign upon the moon 576**_

_**Andvarinaut Valley, Saturn**_

Anna slid as she hit a particularly slippery patch of mud while rushing over one of the rocky forest paths which would take them out of the woods. Lucretia elbowed her way forward past Sinis and Orion and took a hold of Anna by the front of her tunic, pulling her back against her so that her fall would be cushioned by her own body instead of the hard ground she feared was covered with dangerously sharp rocks. However, the sudden move had repercussions for both as the back of Lucretia's head hit the edge a very unforgiving hidden stone and Anna knocked her head into her savior's chin with a painful groan.

"Um…..Anna?" Orion's suddenly small voice was almost drowned out completely by another bout of thunder over the rhythmic thrumming of the rain falling continuously all around them. "Are you alright?"

Lucretia coughed as Anna picked herself up and she could finally breathe again, new air burning in her chest and taking her mind off of the warm trickling she could feel on the back of her neck.

Anna attempted to pointlessly wipe the mud from her soaked clothes. "Perfect."

They had given up rushing to find some sort of shelter. The winds had died down and now the rain was their most precocious enemy. Sinis looked down from his vantage point with one leg propped up on the root of a nearby tree. Not far below him, Lucretia still sat in the mud, catching her breath. He wanted to pounce upon her. Hit her and strike her back down into the mud, but he resisted the urge. Sinis did not like their Marian companion and he made no prolonged effort to keep up pretenses otherwise. Alexandra reached out to offer Lucretia assistance, but the other rightly pushed her hand aside and stood up on her own accord.

"You're bleeding!" Alexandra screeched noticing a splash of red on the Marian's dark tan skin at the bare junction where neck and shoulder met.

Lucretia reached back and felt the wound gingerly. She was a little shocked at first to find that it was almost at the base of her head, where a stoning wound would be left. The shock she felt must have shown on her face for Alexandra immediately looked more worried than Lucretia had ever seen her look in all the time that she had known her. To put her mind at ease, she brought her expression back to neutral and tried to focus on some positive aspect of it. It was a deep gash, but nothing too serious really. She'd suffered worse.

"It's not much." She grunted in Alexandra's direction. "I'll live."

"We should keep moving." Orion spoke up.

Their sudden halt in the downpour made the intellectual prince a little nervous. Regardless of the winds or lack of them, they really should be on their way. It was not safe out here in the forest where thieves and vagabonds lurked and prowled. They needed to find shelter, preferably someplace closer to the castle where their safety was assured before the downpour began to get more violent.

"He's right." Anna looked to all of them and then stopped when her glance fell on Lucretia. "Are you alright to travel Lucretia?"

"I am fine." The Marian stated, no worse for ware than she had been before. "Let's keep going."

"Alright then."

And they continued on, but this time at a much more sedate and collaborative pace than they had before. Sure but steady.

--

It was cool and her once healthily tanned skin was pale and chilled. She could feel and was dimly aware of her heart beating in her ears and her body crying out to her in pain. She was not alone, Entarais knew. She could feel the rain washing over her and spilling along with her own blood into her wounds and smell the wet aroma of the previous storm's afterbirth mingling with the new scent of fresh rainwater. Under different circumstances the experiences might have been almost pleasing.

Her breathing was shallow, but strong and loud enough to be heard resonating in her own ears. The vigor of her youth was in her favor. Sleek and active, Entarais own good health was helping to ensue her survival even in this, the most precarious of situations. Her eyes were closed and he mouth was slightly ajar. The short auburn strands of her hair were plastered in moist designs across her forehead and ears.

A retaliating mist was rising over the stones and boulders which had only recently been warmed in sharp contrast by the sun and was rolling over the prone forms of Entarais and the dead girl who had been left behind. The robbers had not left them, even if it had seemed so. They had camped nearby in an area over shadowed by trees which was close enough so that they could guard their investment until they decided on a basic plan of action.

The giant dug in his pack for something while the slimmer, smaller Segal nibbled a piece of cooked pork meat they had snatched from the kitchens of Draupnir Castle which he was balancing on the edge of his broad dagger. Segal grinned around a mouthful of meat. What a price they would fetch for that little brown haired girl! She had to be one of the brats in the high lord's care, she had to be. And as for the other girl, he ripped a chunk of meat off of the dagger, taking a strip of charred skin with it. Well, she was just unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He was halfway through his mouthful of meat when he turned back to his larger partner. "What are you looking for?"

The larger man turned hurriedly around and looked blankly fearful, much to his chagrin. "Nothing, boss, nothing."

Segal's previous grin fell into a flat dead line as he stood up and took a step forward menacingly. "Yes, you were, you fucking liar! What is it? What are you hiding from me?!"

"Nothing, boss, nothing." Drifus' anxious backpedaling belittled his words almost before they were out of his mouth.

"It's not nothing you mindless oaf!" Segal raced forward and grabbed the pack, beginning to rifle through it crazily.

In his haste to get away from the other, Drifus had fallen backwards and was now sitting in the mud. Segal pulled everything out of the pack and at the very bottom he retrieved a small yet deafeningly heavy statue of pure gold which he recognized from the study of Lord Anslem. Segal rushed forward and smacked his gigantic partner who reeled like a child being punished by a strict parent. The smaller of the two latched onto the front of Drifus' tunic and held him up in a death grip like a vice.

"Holding out on me were you, you fucking cheat!" Segal launched forward with one of his small fists and the larger man's nose erupted in a spurt of blood. "When were you going to tell me, huh? After you had already fetched a hefty price for it and were on a ship off of this gods forsaken planet?! Real nice! After all I've done for you, you louse!"

He hit him again and this time his nose gave way in a sickening crunch before he pulled him back up to eye level. "Wasn't it me who ferried you away from that overbearing bitch of a mother of yours! You'd still be scrubbing floors and pulling that plow out in that lord's fields if it wasn't for me! I set you free! I gave you a way out! Me!! You just had to go and screw it all up!"

The hands which were holding the giant's collar in a death grip were shaking almost as surely as the man beneath their onslaught was trembling in fear. "It was our chance, our only way out and you loused it up!"

"But boss, we was in the clear." Drifus tried to redeem himself, but his voice was unsteady and croaky as both his own tears and blood ran into his throat and mingled there. "We've stolen enough over the years to have enough money to buy our own lands and our own serfs and our own women. We have enough to be content, boss we do-"

"I don't want to be content!!" Segal roared in his face, dropping him to the ground only to pounce on him and strike him upside the head again. "Do you understand?! I could have been content in that little hole in the ground we called home, but content is not part of the picture. I wanted wealth and power and women and you got in the way of everything! I freed you to help me not get in my way!"

"But boss-" Drifus sputtered.

"Shut up, just shut up!" Segal roared and in a flurry of rage, he let go all restraints and let his fists say everything.

Segal stood up and grabbed the statue again, smashing it into Drifus' skull without any remorse or restraint. Without any holds barred, he beat him. He beat him until he could no longer speak, hear or breathe and then Segal stood, covered in his partner in crime's blood. Even his thin face, breathing heavily with the exertion of his latest murder, was speckled with dots of fresh liquid red.

He looked over to the Neptunian girl lying deathly still on her back. Her chest was rising and falling, if only lightly so. She was alive, then and unconscious still. All of the chips were in Segal's favor except for one. He'd just killed the only ally and companion he still had left in the world who would have been loyal enough to rally for him. Now he was on his own in this crime, unless he could gather another stupid oaf to his cause and for profit he was sure he would be able to catch enough fish from one barrel to come out on top when this fiasco was over.

He hefted the dead man to sit up and removed his cloak from him, slinging it over his shoulder as he let gravity take possession of the corpse again. He walked over and wrapped Entarais in it. A man whether pauper, thief, or lord had to protect his investments and the Neptunian was his. He lifted her up and slung the girl over his shoulder haphazardly. If he was to be successful in this he would have to find a new place from which to hatch a plan, a place unmarred by his previous crimes.

--

"Where did all that come from? You would have thought it hadn't been raining nonstop for the last few weeks." Alexandra asked ringing the rainwater out of her golden hair as she sat down on the floor of the gazebo they had been forced to take shelter in as the seemingly threatless sky they had decided it would be wise to move beneath opened up again with another fierce storm.

"Nowhere." Sinis complained ruffling his own short hair causing the ebony strands to stand like sharp pine needles on end. "One moment the weather was perfect, the next and it was pouring rain like tears."

"Something had to cause it." Orion argued. Ever the curious model of a future scientist, he watched the clouds bicker with one another like two battling armies vying for the same position. "A build up of humidity and of continual hot weather over the last few months, no doubt gave to a need for renewed hydration of the land."

"No doubt." Sinis rolled his eyes at the characteristic scientific analysis of situations Orion was so prone to giving.

Alexandra shuddered as the cool drops ran on her already goose bump ridden skin and caused her body to realize the undeniable fact that it was suddenly very cold. Unexpectedly, a heavy red shirt was wrapped around her shoulders. She looked up and Lucretia was leaning against a pillar behind her in a black sleeveless undershirt. It was an odd sight for Lucretia was so proper a soul that it was uncommon for a person to see her shed any article of her clothing while in their company. The Venian princess looked away, the lingering gaze of those lavender eyes striking a fearful, yet not so uncomfortable note within her soul. Lucretia was always making exceptions for Alexandra. Things she would not usually consider or even think of when it came to their other companions were done, sometimes at her own expense even, to please the Venian.

It was a rather recent development and Alexandra still marveled at the sudden change in the girl she could easily call her most devoted friend. Alexandria was not yet a very astute individual for, as with most children her age, her sense of self and thoughtfulness of the world around her was not yet fully developed, but she could feel a very fluid shift in the aura around Lucretia. She knew that her friend was changing, faster than many of the others in their group, maturing faster maybe also as well.

Alexandra smiled up at her savior and the Marian looked away from her uncaringly, just as avidly avoiding contact with those clear blue eyes. "Thank you."

Silence, then quietly as a hesitant whisper barely audible over the rain. "You are welcome."

Alexandra continued to smile to herself, a slight shade of pink rising to her cheeks as she pulled the shirt around her shoulders and reveled in the scent of vanilla and natural Marian spices mingling together for her to breathe in like a fresh aroma of wild flowers.

Anna sat on the edge of the gazebo, the knees of her trousers becoming soaked against the droplets running down from the slanted roof of the building and though her legs were getting cold beneath the growing dampness on her calves, she found herself not quite caring what she was feeling. Quietly, her vigilant emerald eyes stared out into the storm, searching the horizon for something they could not find.

"You look glum, like you've been run over by a miller's cart." Sinis observed half-heartedly, not bothering to look at her, but focusing on the lightening slashing destructively through the clouds above instead. "What is the matter with you, Anna?"

Every one of the royal children turned and looked over at the unresponsive Jovian, though Lucreatia was the only one of their party who hesitated. She was always apt to pretend that she did not care when it came to the situations of others which were not her concern, though she too was curious as to what the other would be worried over. It had been a fine day up to this point. They had gone on two adventures, survived them both and had returned from the much feared forest of vagabonds unharmed. What could possibly be bothering her? Anna watched hawk-like over the sprawling lands laid out like a fresco backdrop of vying greens and alternating grays ahead of them, her worried eyes combing the unmoving forms of idle bushes, boulders, and trees.

It was then that Orion ventured to look around them and realized no sign of the Neptunian princess. After all, Entarais' only punishment had been to clean the courtyard and if it was raining then that defeated the purpose and she would have most likely been released with a warning to pay more attention in class, but that would be all. She would have ventured into the valley as well, for he had told her that was where they were headed, but she would not have stayed there for long in the rain? It didn't make sense. Where then would she have gone?

"Where is Entarais?" Orion asked out loud, looking back to Anna then to Sinia for his answer.

That was when two and two clicked in Lucretia's mind. Where was Entarais? She and the girl were not particularly close to one another, but the Neptunian was a member of her group and a good Marian never left a member of their own behind.

"Beats the hell out of me!" Sinis threw his hands up in frustration as Anna continued to ignore him and fell back upon the cold, damp stone floor of the gazebo.

Orion rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the Jovian he knew Entarais was so close to. If Entarais had decided to tell anyone where she was deciding on going, it would have been Anna.

"Did she confide in you where she was headed to, Anna?" Orion asked curiously.

"No. I wish she had." Anna said crestfallen, it was barely above a whisper, but everyone heard it. She was near tears now, as she squeezed her eyes shut tightly, ashamed of her own emotions. A good Jovian did not cry. Her brother had told her so before she had been taken away and why would he lie to her?

"Don't worry so much, Anna." Sinis admonished, finding the diamond pattern carved into the domed ceiling more interesting than the conversation or the whereabouts of a friend. "She's probably still scrubbing that courtyard."

Anna turned to him incredulously, her emerald gaze hardening. "In the rain? What good would a clean courtyard be if it was under water?!"

"True." Sinis conceded finally giving her his full attention, he rolled over and propped his head up on his elbow. "But there is nowhere else I could think of where she would have run off to."

Anna suddenly stood, her attention focused entirely on the far away tree line ahead of them.

"I am going to search for her."

"Are you mad?!" Sinis yelled launching himself out onto the yard after her. He stopped and stood not ten feet from her. "The sky is practically spitting fire and you run out there without a thought in your head."

"Wouldn't you, if it were someone you cared about?" Anna turned and looked at him, soaked to the bone, shaking and the nearest to being ready to spout tears than she had ever been.

Sinis was taken aback, but his stubborn will, wisely self serving, refused to back down. "But she's only one person!"

"So, would it be more important if only you were lost instead of her. Would you not want us to go looking for you?" Anna asked.

"You're overreacting!" Sinis shouted and turned his back on her, not the last time he would ever do that to his childhood comrades when they would implore him for his aide.

"Am I?" Anna asked. "We are royals, dressed to show, and alone. It's not hard to find ourselves in very real danger. We mortals, common or no, have so many weaknesses. We fight, bicker, and disagree so nothing gets done. It is not the time which breed war it is ourselves who breed it like a disease. All we have is the ability to care about others and those for whom everything counts. Threats to out personages are very real, what else is their more important than the love of those we care about?"

Sinis stood there brooding with himself as Anna turned from him and continued on her way without him. He turned on his heel, looking quickly to his other companions. Lucretia standing close to the steps now, her stance a ready one, swept a disapproving glare in his direction and the Saturnarian prince was not at a loss as to why. On Mars, cowardice in the face of possible danger was the highest of all capital crimes equivalent to treason. After all, on that little red planet, your group was made up of the only individuals you could trust and turning your back on a group member when they were in need was a form of treason.

His dark amethyst eyes hardened at her and his lips turned down in a tight frown. How dare she raise an affront against him! He was no coward. No one would dare imply that he was one. He was not a coward! His breathing became heavier as he turned to Orion with blank eyes. The Mercurian looked up at him only briefly, but in the short moment their eyes met, Sinis caught a hint of both emotions hiding there: suspicion and fear.

His jaw tensed. Orion was supposed to be his closest friend. They did everything together from playing games to relaxing and true, Sinis did enjoy poking fun at the intellectual prince more often than most, he loved to see him squirm, but it was not meant to offend, it was all in the name of good fun. How could his closest friend think so lowly of him? Sinis snorted, remembering their interactions in the glade. He probably still hadn't forgiven him for the butterfly, the pitiful sap, Sinis thought snidely to himself. No matter, he would show him, he would show all of them especially that presumptuous Marian that Sinis of Saturn was no coward.

Finally, Sinis sighed tersely and turned to the rest of them before transcending the stairs down into the muddied grass. "I am going with her."

They all seemed surprised, but Lucretia was the first to agree with him.

"You will not go alone." Lucretia sided with him and raced down the stairs towards them, sparing Sinis an approving glance that implied that perhaps she had misjudged him. "We'll come with you."

"I certainly will not." Alexandra spoke up causing both Anna and Lucretia to turn towards her. She looked down at herself dressed in her golden gown of no good use when it came to fighting through trees and underbrush. It had tripped her up earlier when they had found the glade and she did not want to slow the group down a second time. "What could I possibly do to help anyway. I am not the strongest out of all of you. I'm not even the fastest or the smartest. I'd just slow you down along the way."

"Nor should you have to accompany us." Orion piped up, he was always planning ahead for every possible hardship. There was a strategic purpose for every member of a group and to him, Alexandra had a very important one. "Instead head back to the Castle and tell them what has become of us. Something tells me you are the one who has enough fire to argue with Lord Anslem on our behalf. You will not let us down, I know it. Tell them to send guards on horses, I have a feeling we will need one or the other. This is not a welcoming day. You will do the most important thing out of any of us. You will ensure we are saved."

Orion backed away from her down the steps, smiling genuinely up at her. He had always been fond of her fire, her vigorous spirit and he knew the most important course of action was not always along the most well trodden path. Someone had to be brave enough to go it alone and he knew it would be her. She did not give herself enough credit for her attributes, but so long as her friends knew her true worth it was all that mattered at the moment. She had strength oh, yes. Hurriedly, he caught up with Sinis and matched his running pace behind Anna who had taken off without any warning and Lucretia through the fathomless meadow bravely in tow.

Alexandra nodded and headed down the steps on the other side, but before she got too far she turned back around and watched them go, particularly the Marian among them. "Lucretia!" She shouted at her.

Lucretia stopped and turned sharply towards her, surprised. "What?"

Alexandra had wanted to tell her to be careful, but the words would not form on her tongue instead she held the shirt tighter to her shoulders. "Your shirt!"

"Keep it!" Lucretia shouted back to her and then ran after the rest of them who were heading undauntedly into the woods.

Alexandra watched them go, her heart going with all of them wherever they ventured. Almost to herself she clung to the shirt draped over her shoulders and prayed. "Please, be careful all and come back safe to me."

Then, with speed in her little feet she did not know existed, she raced off towards the Castle. It would be a few miles until she reached the grounds even at a run, but that did nothing to hinder her. She did not intend to let them down, no matter what should come her way. She would do her part and ensure that they came home safe to her.

--

It was dark, but Entarais was not numb. She felt a dull ache in her back which increased every time she inhaled. She did not hear anything around her except for the droning of the rain. Nothing of the birds singing or of the babbling of the nearby brook. No audible signs of people either. She was alone. The murders must have left her for dead, then. Entarais could taste salt faintly on her lips and was aware that she had been crying, even in her unconscious state, she could not help but be traumatized at what she had seen, just as she could taste the metallic twang of blood in the back of her mouth.

Entarais could not see, she could not discern what was real from the world around her and yet it did not bother her, as if she were watching it all from the outside looking in, she had been sure that it would. Her own cataleptic nightmare was not one based on sight. It took the forms of sound. The screams of that little girl. The crackling crunching of her bones as they were twisted the wrong way. Then her body's memory of the hateful and agonizing sensations which had overtaken her only hours before. Of the pressure of the holding foot, of the sharp feeling of the dagger pressed into her back, or of the shocking swipe of the leather boot as it smacked into the already injured side of her face. The grief and utter helplessness she felt at the loss of that strange girl.

The world outside of her own nightmare was making itself more and more known to her with every drop of rain that landed on her face and soaked into her already drenched clothes. One particularly grossly fattened drop landed on her forehead and wadded through the amber straight of her eyebrow and took solace in the hollow of one closed eye.

Slowly, Entarais cracked her other eye open. The dark purple sky over head came clearly into immediate focus just as a daring bolt of lightening struck a rock not five feet from her head. The close encounter did not phase her in anyway. Entarais wanted to stand up, to somehow find the poor girl and save her even though she knew the hours had passed and she must have died in a matter of minutes.

She stretched her cold, stiff fingers at her sides and found one set of them sickly encased in a sticky cocoon of the fresh and drying blood pooling beneath it. She closed her eyes again as she thought back to her earlier lessons and to her most influential teacher.

_Every human is free of their own minds and bodies, with the ability to make their own choices live. Every person carries a distinct power within their beings, the power of free destiny, the power to choose their paths they would wish their lives to follow. This power gives the most insignificant of beings the right to change the future. Never forget, in these times of peace, we write our own destinies._

She was crying. Her chest was shaking uncontrollably and in the darkness her mind cried out for some release, a way to escape this dreaded nightmare she was a captive prisoner of. Shadows danced, light swam through her dreams, and the little girl's voice screamed and gurgled as her throat was cut precluding her death.

Entarais swallowed and her wet and sweating brow creased as thoughts and memories swirled in her head, overwhelming her mind and cultivating the beginning of an entirely new ideal entirely, a radical one for the times she lived in.

_Without choices, without freedom lacking disdain, what are we? Miserable creatures who kill each other in war after war with no higher purpose. It is not the gods who give us wings, nor restrictions. The restrictions reside as walls of stone in our minds, while our wings remain too captivated to fly. But if we drop these walls, the distances we could soar over are limitless. Nothing restricts the individual, except the individual himself._

Anshar had not thought they would understand the meaning behind his lessons then. How could he? When most grown men, kings and diplomats did not heed such a teaching what was the likelihood that a few careless children would _choose_ to be aware of it? Those men had chosen to leave her for dead, to kill the other girl instead of her and to allow themselves indulgence in the vice of hurting others. That was their error. It is not the hidden merit of a person so much which distinguishes their characters, it is their choices and the actions that shows the potential of that merit.

Entarais grimaced as she felt a couple of ants nibble at the wound beneath her. Something had to be done against people like that…something. The nibbling along with the constant festering ache inside the wound became too much for her and again, Entarais embraced the darkness without any further thought. But a beginning had been reached, a great ideal had been founded. Something beyond the law of the land, something beyond the will of the Fates. It was the power of choice which would write the future in the hard days to come.

--

Tuireann careened forward, but before he could smack into the person ahead of him, he was caught by the scruff of his cloak and pulled backwards into a darkened side alley. His unknown assailant threw him roughly into the dirt. Dust fished up around him and he coughed violently when the rusty fog entered his throat and his inflamed nostrils. His eyes filled with tears at the corners as they were suddenly dry and irritated, but he refused to let his discomfort show in his features and he turned his face away from his attacker. Better that way. If he was further assaulted from behind then at least it would not be on his face. He could not bear a mark of Marian make to be left where all could see, his pride would not allow it.

"You should look me in the eyes." Maluginensis' voice was the only thing which cut firmly through the dust. "You owe me that much."

"I thought that I'd hit you hard enough so that you'd sleep at least another fortnight, but I was wrong." The Jovian tried for the humor in his voice, but it was all bitter in play. "You always were the more stubborn of the two."

"Raiden has always had the stronger resolve, but I leave no affair unfinished. I had thought you would have remembered that if anything from your childhood stay on Mars." Maluginensis stepped out of the shadows near the entrance with his unsheathed sword dangling ready for use in one hand. "Why did you come here?"

"For my own reasons." Tuireann tried to hold out as long as he could from where he held himself up on his hands and knees, but Maluginensis was insistent.

"Do not play with me you fool!" He moved forward and held the blade in front of him so that it's hardy steel surface shown in the dim firelight coming in from the square. "Who sent you?"

"No one sent me."

The khan to be moved forward and smacked Tuireann upside the head with the broadside of his sword, giving him time to digest the smarting pain before he continued. "Now, I will ask you again, who sent you?"

Tuireann reached up and touched the bump forming on the side of his head. "You know me better than you remember, Maluginensis. For a Marian the highest crime is abandoning their loved ones when they need them, for a Jovian the most despicable thing we could do is tell a lie."

"Hm." Maluginensis grunted, a smirk coming to his features. "Right. If I remember correctly though, you were anything less than a normal Jovian child, spending your days with two Marians as your closest companions."

"Closer than brothers." Tuireann smirked in kind, wincing inwardly when the muscles in the side of his face cried out against the movement and as he spoke his chest rumbled with bitter laughter. "I was young then. I didn't know what lay ahead of me."

"Such things cannot last into adulthood." Maluginensis said. "We inhabit different worlds."

"You've changed, Maluginensis, grown up too much. What of the lifelong friendship between your king and the king of Venus, do they not also inhabit different worlds, more different from one another than those of yours and mine?" Tuireann asked.

Maluginensis released a heavy breath. "It's a mistake. My cousin the king is a wise man, he will come to realize it in time. Your country is no enemy of mine, but because of your intentions in coming here you have made yourself my enemy and Raiden would feel the same way."

Tuireann spit in the dirt. "He's your uncle, what concern is it of yours?"

"It is every concern of mine." Maluginensis replied plainly. "You must know by now, Tuireann, that a Marian's loyalty lies with his tribe and more importantly with his family."

"Raiden and I were like brothers…" Tuireann stared dully at the spot on the ground where he had spit, the dirt there was still moist.

"Blood is thicker than thin air promises are spoken in." Maluginensis said easily. "You surprise me, Tuireann. I would never have thought of you, least of all, to be one so ignorant of our culture as you were practically raised as a Marian. Though, I have to say, in your passion to avenge your father you are more Marian than of your own ilk."

"I'm a Jovian not a Marian and I refuse to be referred to as one!"

"Such a flare of national pride from a boy I remember always scorning his heritage." Maluginensis shifted his weight to his other leg. "What was it you called your father then, 'a weak and indecisive man' was it?"

"Shut up!" Tuireann snapped, the only restraining him from leaping up and strangling his previous friend was the thought of that same friendship as it once had been without the very real thought that those days were now over with.

"You came for Parmellion."

It was a statement, never a question for Maluginensis was well aware of his former friend's hatred of his uncle and of the reason for that hatred. It had been what had ended their friendship after all, but though, he understood his plight to regain his father's honor through vengeance, Maluginensis was a Tarquin and the man Tuireann wanted to kill was his uncle and it was his duty to protect and defend his own ilk, his own family. Tuireann was not blood, he never had been. Even Raiden would understand that their once irrepressible friendship was at an end and, though he both loved and hated his father, he would never support Tuireann.

On the contrary, if the Jovian was impulsive enough to attack Parmellion in his presence, Raiden would be obliged to kill him outright on the spot. There was no mercy in such circumstances, but Maluginensis had broken the rules, just this once. Even this, what he had done in dragging Tuireann from the crowd had been an act of mercy. Had he leapt into the square, even if Parmellion was not there to attack, he still would have been beaten to death by the king's guards or his generals as he was a foreigner and would have been seen as a trespasser into Marian territory.

Though Maluginensis was more than happy to admit that their childhood friendship was at an end, he had to admit that was a little hesitant to kill the hot headed Jovian and had already formed a plan as to how he was to get him out of this situation, but only this once. The second time, he would have to kill him.

"He's not here."

"He must be." Tuireann hissed and stared down at the ground below his hands resentfully, glaring at the settled dirt there as his fingers dug vengefully into it. He felt the essence of desperation creep through him at the realization of his worst fears. His fists pounded at the dirt. "No! It cannot be so." The Jovian refused to believe that the pursuit he had devoted his life to thus far was a frivolous one. "You lie. He's here somewhere and I'll find him."

Maluginensis shook his head, a fixed smirk on his features as he chuckled delightedly to himself. "What a stubborn fool you are. He's on a diplomatic mission."

"To where?" Tuireann asked heatedly.

"I do not know." Maluginensis replied calmly. "It's not the job of my higher ups to share all of their information with me. My uncle is an important man. I have no doubt his services are held in the confidence of the king and of the king only."

"What of your renegade sister?" The smile returned to Tuireann's face as Maluginensis' expression melted into a thin line at the steam of questioning the Jovian was initiating just to get back at his former companion, make him feel as worthless and dejected and he was feeling at the moment. "I hear she's causing quite a stir on Saturn with those self proclaimed vigilantes of hers."

"My sister is none of your concern." Maluginensis visibly stiffened, his jaw clenching and grinding subtly.

"And I hear she's not even your full sibling." Tuireann was drawing the sting away from the fact that he could not take his vengeance on Parmellion as he had planned and was adding insult to the injury of the hotheaded Marian. "Your father made a wife out of a helot slave and your sister is the product of that shameful union. A Marian princess of half blood, is there anything more disgraceful?"

Tuireann began to laugh, but a brutal blow to the back of his head waylaid him and he fell down to the ground. He was not unconscious. The swirling daze of pain and confusion in his head told him that. The tangy metallic taste of his own lukewarm blood filled his mouth at the back of his throat. He coughed and gagged violently and then settled back into a labored rhythm of breathing while lying prone in the dirt.

Maluginensis stood up a little taller, raising his chin proudly. "A Marian of any kind is better than a Jovian on any given day."

Another blow and Tuireann rolled to his side with the immense momentum of the strike. He was not aware that he had passed out really, until he awoke slumped against the outer walls of the city, alone and minus the Marian cloak he had stolen.

--

"Are you sure she came this way?" Sinis asked, sighing in frustration as he fought his way through another dense pack of brush which scratched offensively at his face and eyes.

"I'm not sure of anything at this point." Anna returned pushing forward, fighting against the undergrowth determinedly. "But these are small foot prints about her size and that is enough for me for now."

Lucretia knelt down and touched her fingers to the drying mud inside one of the prints. "It is only a few hours old, but still. If it was her, she seems to have been in a rapid retreat from something."

"Um….Lucretia?"

Lucretia turned at the sound of Orion's voice and made her way over to where the Mercurian prince was standing. Away from the bushes, at the base of a large oak there was a great footprint scarred into the still moist mud. Kneeling down to examine it in detail, an overwhelming sense of foreboding came over Lucretia.

"What could have made that?" Sinis' firm jaw had dropped and with it went his usual confident demeanor.

"A giant of a man." Orion swallowed nervously beside him. "If the owner of that foot were after me, I would certainly be in a hurry."

Anna, all business at this point, looked on over Lucretia's shoulder as she examined the print. Her eyes were hard and unnerving. "How old is it?"

Lucretia dipped two fingers into the mud while simultaneously giving it the clinical eye. "A couple hours at the most."

"What makes you the expert on all of this?" Sinis asked cynically. His patience with the situation was deteriorating fast.

Lucretia stood coming eye to eye with him, her steady amethyst gaze lending him no ground. "I come from a planet with conditions which would make you weep in fear every night for your life as you heard the screams of others being killed, beaten, or tortured by members of an opposing tribe or eaten by some unforgiving beast or eroded by the fierce desert sands into nothing but mounds of scathed flesh. It is not so hard to learn how to track if it means your life over your death. Perhaps it is something you might want to look into, prince of death and destruction."

This last part was filed off with a self-assured smile, one the Martian princess would become more accustomed to in later years, but which was new to her character as of late. Something she had picked up from Anna and adapted to her own uses.

Both Anna and Orion had proceeded ahead of them and were now passed the closest trees beyond their vision.

Anna arched her neck so that she could still see Lucretia with her back to her and Sinis' burning face between the branches of the nearest tree, "Come on, both of you, we do not have time to fight each other."

Lucretia slowly backed away from Sinis and quietly followed in Anna's footsteps, trailing close behind them, but not so much so that she would not have had space enough to react if the two ahead of her stumbled into danger. Sinis stood back stubbornly for a moment, his hard gaze lingering on the twig of a swaddling bush which for the moment, would have to bear the weight of his wrath. This was not his fight. He didn't even know Entarais that well to begin with. He reached up and felt his warm cheeks aflush with indignation and embarrassment at being made a fool of by his Marian companion. Who did she think she was anyway?

Sinis lashed out and tore the offending twig from the safe haven of its parent plant.

For the love of all the Gods, he was a prince of Saturn! People did not jeer at a prince of Saturn, least not if they did not have a death wish, that was, but that was beside the point.

Why did he have to take a chance at getting lost in these dense forests, all for what? To die in this dank place? What if they couldn't find her? What if they got lost in this miserable maze themselves? What then? Suddenly, fear gripped him, a fear like he had never known before in his short life. Trepidation at the unknown to come, one of the greatest vices of all men when it is indulged, lodged itself deep inside his being like a parasite without any plan to dislodge itself ever from him.

Sinis was afraid, but he was not a coward. The prince of death and rebirth was a pragmatist. He knew that bad outcomes were the most prevalent when it came to situations like the ones he and his school mates so often found themselves in and as such he was little the optimist for it. He would show them. He would help find Entarais and he would prove himself as better than all of the rest of them. With lofty ambitions in mind and a hearty sneer taking reign over his face, Sinis started off again in the same direction his companions had disappeared in.

--

The rain had eased and the storm had waned a bit. Alexandra had reached Draupnir castle without incident and was being escorted down the main hall by a tall armored guard. At first, the guards at the gates had refused to let her in. Lord Anslem was a largely private person and as such the royal children were not allowed to travel outside of their own specific wing of the castle for fear that they would disturb their patron's privacy.

_He really does need to get out more_, Alexandra thought to herself as they continued down the long winding corridor which seemed to have no objective in mind. Just as she thought this, the guard looked suspiciously over his shoulder as he had many times during their long walk to make sure that she was indeed following him and that she had not wandered off into one of the many other hallways. She'd honestly thought about it and had almost been off down one of the other side corridors when she had been questioned by the guard and forced to turn around again.

Alexandra knew she wasn't being led to Lord Anslem. They'd been going in circles for at least ten minutes. Besides, that was just too nice and hospitality was not a trait she had encountered when first setting foot in this palace. Animosity and apprehension was more the norm. But she had to find a way to him. If this guard was just going to lead her in circles all day then she would never be able to get help for her friends. Then a thought occurred to her.

"I would like to go to the library." She called out stopping the guard in his tracks.

The guard turned to her, bemused. "The library? Why the library?"

"I have some coursework the instructor gave me to finish." Alexandra lied expertly, her clear cobalt eyes gleaming mischievously in the lamp light. "It requires research."

"What of Lord Anslem?" The guard asked suspiciously.

"What of him?" Alexandra challenged.

The guard was hesitant, but relented and escorted her to one of the castle's four main libraries. Meanwhile, it was left for Alexandra to use her mental compass to determine which direction they were headed in and which would be the easiest way to go to the east wing where Anslem secluded himself from the rest of them. As she entered the library and turned to regard the tall guard lingering distrustfully a few feet behind her she knew that losing him would not be the biggest problem she would have to overcome, but being able to find the exact whereabouts of the reclusive lord before the rest of the guards were alerted to her presence. Alexandra's face became a tribute in concentrated dedication as she ventured through the library searching for the research section.

Lord Anslem was a very organized man and everything he compiled was valiantly stocked in shelves clearly distinguished by whatever category literature it held. There was however, a restricted research area where many controversial or banned subjects were kept. If she could get on the other side of the separating wall, for that would be the first part of the battle won, then she would have a fighting chance. Every one of the four main libraries had four double doors on each wall which allowed for escape from all sides. It was simply a matter of finding her own route of escape.

"What area of research does your coursework entail?" The guard asked as he jadedly leaned on his pike. "Perhaps, I could help you search for it?"

With a smile which bespoke of the social meter of a woman twice her age, Alexandra agreed. "Yes, that would be very thoughtful of you."

The guard smiled and followed her lead, already reeled in by the encouraging words she had fed him. After a fair amount of indiscrete and fruitless wandering, the Venian princess finally had to concede that she had no idea where the section she was searching for might be located and that she could use some help. Couldn't hurt, might in fact help. It was worth a try.

"Where is the restricted section?" Alexandra asked offhandedly.

"The restricted section? What would you want with that?" The guard asked, very much at a loss. "There's nothing much there except for policies, records, and literature which the Lord restricts access to. I'm afraid we can't go there."

"I have to research the-" Alexandra had to think for a moment, this fabrication took a bit more thought than her last one. "dissertation made by Anshar of Pluto during his stay in Theia."

"Hmmm…" The guard once again leaned on his pike, this time in deep thought. "I haven't heard of that one, but I've heard that name before. Was he not that philosopher from Pluto who was killed in a riot there?"

Alexandra swallowed to keep from losing her nerve. "Yes."

"Ah, well, the end comes to us all, I suppose." The guard said with a cocky grin. "He just got unlucky."

"I suppose so." Alexandra smiled to stave off the churning of her stomach.

"Just because I've never heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist." The guard said already bypassing Alexandra. "You know, you could get me in a lot of trouble, convincing me to help you with all of this, but where's the fun in life without the risk."

"You'll help me then?"

The guard continued to smile. "Come along, I'll show you the way."

And with great hesitation, she followed him. They had not advanced far when they turned and Alexandra caught site of the hard wood of the separating wall and a brass sign roughly engraved which read RESERVED.

"We're here."

"So I see." She said with an enchanting smile. "Wait here, I'll only be a moment."

He stepped back and allowed her to pass, but even with that small act of compliance, she did not believe that this guard was so simple as he seemed. The looks he gave her and the tone of his voice set off warning bells in her head. No matter, if she was able to get away then she had no qualms that this man would be any trouble to her.

She entered the small door within the separating wall, shielded from the guard's sight by the iron grating above the wall, Alexandra immediately set to work finding a way out. There were three main bookcases towering over her up to the ceiling and countless shelves lining the walls filled with books and bound scrolls, but there was no opening that she could see which was large enough even for her small form to slip through unnoticed.

Alexandra was disheartened, but fought hard to hold back hard tears of desperation. She could not fail in this thing as she did in so many other aspects of their training. She had never been very physically apt and her instructors constantly bemoaned her lack of balance and her clumsiness in any and every event, but she was a very bright student and despite the complaints of many of her trainers, she was well thought of among their tutors. The Venian had made it this far, she could not and would not fail now. The others were all counting on her, how could she let them down?

But there was no visible outlet from which she could flee the room. There had to be a way though she pondered as she scoured the corners and any crevice she could find, there was always another way. Alexandra had learned that much from their adventures together. There was no reason to ever give up or surrender because there always was another way, no matter how hopeless the situation seemed, there were always the possibilities to consider.

Alexandra, ever the optimist was becoming increasingly frustrated, however, with the situation at hand. In a huff, she turned a corner too sharply and her foot caught on the edge of the shelf causing her to fall into the shelf and then slide to the ground. However, the fall to the ground never came. As soon as she slammed into the wood of the shelf it gave way and she slide into darkness listening to the wood click back into place behind her. What in the world? Alexandra sat up as far as the small space would allow to better get her bearings.

First, her little hands flew over her clothed form searching for rips or tears which might preclude an injury, but there were none and second she realized that she was entirely in darkness and the library, even at midnight, would not have been this dark.

"Ha!" She shouted. "Finally, sweet escape here I come!"

The words had no sooner left the Venian's lips when she clamped her hand over her mouth, realizing the possible danger to such an action, but it was too late. She had spoken. The door through the separating wall opened and she could hear muffled footsteps in the foreground.

"Princess?" The guard called lightly as he advanced, heavy footsteps a cadence she could not ignore. "Do you require assistance?"

Alexandra was not thinking, barely breathing, and sitting as still as a wooden board frozen by the fear of possible realization. If she were to be found out then there would be no chance of escape. She was scared. Venians were known for being superficial and fearful. Of course, they were not known for their exploits in battle. Venus was a trading nation known, in most part, for its merchants and its immense expanse of goods which it imported and exported from both inside and outside the Sol system. Though Venus did have a very well equipped army, it had never taken its military into battle against the army of another nation so it was a mystery as to how they would perform. Alexandra, even in her experiences with her companions, had not been in many frightful situations and therefore did not know how to react under such pressure. It was a learning experience. She was scared, she did not know what to do, but she was determined not to give up and that is the first step in winning any victory.

The guard's heavy footsteps made the floor seem as though it were being tread upon by a giant and it shook in turn with each movement of his feet. "Princess Alexandra?"

For what seemed like an eternity, she held her breath, convinced by her frazzled mind that should she take one small breath, the thin wooden barrier between her and her pursuer would be knocked down and she would be dragged out and punished. She didn't move, didn't breathe, but the sudden movement of a tiny creature which brushed up against her back startled her and she started somewhat, trying not to make a sound. The footsteps stalled outside her hiding place and it seemed, if only in that moment, that her heart had even stopped beating, but then the guard continued on his way without a pause in his gate. As the footfalls faded away, she breathed again, big gaping breaths of the stale, dry air the confined space had to offer her.

For a moment, Alexandra was not anywhere. Her heart was in her ears, her mind aching in her head, relief flooding her lungs. She had done it. As she let out a deep, cleansing breath which hitched in her chest as all of the fear she had been feeling drained away, she knew she had succeeded somewhat. Now she only had to find a way out. The darkness was all consuming and she could not see her hand in front of her face if she tried. She would have to feel her way out if she was ever going to find one.

Cautiously, Alexandra turned around and on her hands and knees, she began to explore the little tunnel. It was thin and long and there was neither a great deal of ventilation nor headspace, of that much she was for certain, but how long did it go on for? It was a straight road, never shifting, never turning so she was sure that she was off in the direction she wanted to be in, she just had no idea where the tunnel led or what it might have been used for. A servant's door perhaps?

Alexandra quickly dismissed that idea as no one coming or going would be able to bring anything but themselves with them and a servant usually had a purpose. Perhaps, a tunnel for escape? That was more plausible an explanation. It was certainly unique. The palace on Venus had nothing of this like that she knew of. Along the way, Alexandra also reached up the short distance to feel out the ceiling and the walls. If there was to be an exit hatch, odds were it would not be on the floor, but one never knew what was ahead of them so it was important to explore all of the possibilities.

After what seemed like hours, Alexandra pushed against a panel above her head and it gave way a little bit, but she was not strong enough to completely open it as it was heavy, as though something was resting atop of it. Thinking quickly, she scrambled onto her back, bracing herself against the floor as she kicked against the hatch. With the first kick, it only shifted and some dust fell through the cracks, through which she could see light in the room above, but with another mighty the hatch leapt open and she could see the dim foyer of hidden room.

She stood up cautiously. Had there been someone in the room? If so then they most certainly would have heard her and she would have been found out immediately. Peeking out from the hole in the floor, Alexandra was briefly awed at the sight presented before her. She had emerged into a vast study. It was almost as large as the main library she had just been in and twice as ornately decorated. Before her was a large desk carved as though hewn completely out of the lone trunk of one giant cherry wood tree. It was duly engraved and polished. The craftsman who had made it was a true and worthy artist of wood.

Alexandra crawled out of the hole and onto the rug covered floor cautiously. As she looked around the room, there didn't seem to be anyone present. It was a large chamber which made the wing of the castle all of the royal children inhabited seem squalid and insignificant. The Venian princess had to admit that she had seen very few chambers of its make in her travels and stays in other places.

Everything she'd seen paled in comparison to something of this magnitude.

Great tapestries lined the walls, leaving very little of the polished gray stones to be seen by the eye. The faded images on the once ornate tapestries could hardly be deciphered, however, as the room was dimly lit (even by most standards of the day). A few sticks of spicy incense smoldered languidly in a crystal vase, the peppery smoke they produced spiraling loosely in the opaque light coming in from the window. Alexandra walked around, taking in the sights of the room. There was an unlit oil lamp resting on the desk surface along with a few dulled quills and a stack of blank pieces of parchment.

The Venian moved over to the side of the desk and took in the smell of antique wood and along with the pungent, tasteless aroma of fresh ink. Whoever had been here had been at work for the majority of the day and had only recently retired, or at least that was what she figured. Before the great pilgrimage, most royals did not know how to read and write and education was kept predominantly to the scribes and religious laymen. Afterwards, the classical education of royals was instituted and the new generation became very sell schooled, but still many kings and princes employed scribes to man their libraries and document their reigns. Anslem was one of the few who still kept his own records. He hid himself away in seclusion reading, reflecting, and writing.

In fact, Alexandra was surprised that she had not found him here as he no doubt was only a few hours ago. By all accounts the children had come across regarding the mysterious man who owned the castle which they had called home for the last few years, Lord Anslem was more reclusive than a Mercurian and more staunch a man than a Plutonian. Quite personally, she was a little scared of him.

She heard a rustle outside of the room and the double doors opposite where she was standing creaked open quickly. Alexandra froze and with a small squeak, dropped to the floor. It was a move meant to prolong the secrecy of her intrusion, but the sound of her body hitting the floor was clearly audible in the still hanging air and she was sure it was the loudest noise she had ever heard.

If Lord Anslem had heard the sound he gave no indication of it. The man seemed utterly lost in the familiar maze of his own thoughts. Alex's heart was racing in her chest. Should she rise and get his attention? Would he be overtly angry to find her in his private study? She didn't know and wasn't sue she wanted to find out, but her friends were counting on her.

Oh, the power of choices, how it confounds…

Warmth, her body was uncomfortably warm. From the moment she opened her eyes, Entarais knew only that. The entire plain of her back was sore and the place where her uncleaned wound resided felt spongy and balloon like. Her mouth and throat were dry and her brow sweat coated while her breathing remained unsteady. Frankly, if she could have thought straight, Entarais would have been surprised that she was still alive at all.

"You're awake." She recognized the irritated voice of Segal someplace beyond her line of vision. "About time too, I should think."

"W-wh-" Entarais tried to speak, but her throat was dry and her mind still reeling somewhere between consciousness and merciful oblivion.

"Hell if I know." Segal's voice interrupted her after several failed attempts to speak. "I don't know where we are, damn it, but we'll have to stay here. Lie low for a while."

Entarais closed her eyes and swallowed. Her fever was hearty and the festering in her wound was growing incorrigibly with every passing moment. She was hovering on a precipice and how she longed to fall one way or another, but something pulled her back. A nagging thought at the back of her mind. Anna. She and all of their friends, where were they? And Anna, was she alright? Entarais didn't know, but her heart leapt at her when she thought of the notion of her best friend in danger. Segal leaned over her and shook her hard.

"Wake up, wake up!" He shouted. "You fall asleep again and I'll give you such a wallop like you've never received before."

Entarais opened her eyes and groaned at the sudden aggravation in her back as he shook her.

"Please don't…" She pleaded weakly in protest to the movement. "It hurts…"

And he let her go.

"Alright, alright, don't get all riled up." He said standing up, his hands resting on the sides of his belt. "You just can't fall back asleep. If you do then the festering in your wound might turn into a full fledged fever and we can't take that risk until I can get a doctor to lance it. You're not well enough to travel as far as we need to. Well , well now, what do we have here?"

It was then that Segal noticed the gleam of the aquamarine pendant peaking out from Entarais' high collar. He reached for the dagger at his side and unsheathed it. Then he bent down and reached it into the prone girl's collar and pulled up the silver chain with the pendant on it. It did not appear old, though the silver looked to be practically pure and the stone reflected the day's dull light in a million shards of tiny mirrored fragments tinged with a translucent sheen of the stone's actual color like the many refracted sides of a prism.

"Where did you get this?"

Entarais' unfocused eyes zoned in on the man above her, trying to talk as she regulated her breathing. "It was my father's. My uncle gave it to me as a parting gift before I left."

"A family heirloom, eh?" Segal gave the dagger a yank and the chain gave with the pendant sliding off to the side. He grabbed off of her and stood, examining the gem in the dim light the slipping through the dense canopy of the lower part of the woods they had wandered into to hide. "I could fetch a hefty price for it after I sell you back to Anslem."

But there was no grim or sneer on Segal's thin face. Entarais' pallor had increased as time passed and the infection in her wound was gaining momentum with the passing hours. That was not good. Any illness with such ferocity as to over take its victim in a short matter of moments was a formidable foe and he sincerely hoped that the girl would make it through the night. After all, a corpse was worth less than a living body intact. Segal had been raised in a poor background, as a farmer's son who worked a lord's land. When he was a boy, he had witness one of his brothers accidentally strike another with a sickle blade, the type used for the harvest. As a result of how poor they were, his brother had contracted infection without proper care and had died within a day of contracting the illness, so Segal was very much aware how fast these infections tended to work.

He'd made the mistake of letting the girl under his charge pass out and sleep for too long. He would not make the same error again for it was in sleep when the infection took over the body. Without another thought, he stuffed the pendant and chain in a pouch at his belt and stepped away from Entarais, out of her line of vision. She could not decipher much about the place they were in as her body hurt when she moved, but she knew what it felt like. It was damp and humid. The land around her was laden with water and algae. If the smell was not enough to tell, she was in a swamp.

What better place to hide in than one in which no one wanted to go looking for you? Segal, though a brute, was not a stupid man.

Entarais swallowed uncomfortably as the spot on her back gurgled and bubbled. She could feel it fester, could feel the lingering orifice eating away at her strength and consciousness and the sleeping monster setting on her brow, waiting until she finally closed her eyes to awaken. The rims of her eyes were red, whether from the illness or from crying she did not know, but she could feel the minor sting at their corners. That was the least of her worries, however. The back of her throat was filled with a mixture of draining fluid and blood which she had to cough to clear every so often and the whole of her body, her limbs and organs, felt like they had been stuffed full of cotton like a child's doll and then weighed down with huge blocks of iron ore.

"I'm going to find you a doctor." Segal said matter-of-factly. "And when I return with him you are not to speak a word about what you've seen or this whole situation do you understand?" His eyes hardened as he said this and his jaw tightened menacingly, "Or I will, I swear upon all of the gods, kill you myself."

Entarais doubted that she could have said anything even if she wanted to. Segal did not wait for a reply. She heard his footsteps trudge through the muck of the swamp and then climb up the muddy bank before they became too faint to hear any longer. With strong resolve, she tried to roll over so that she could perhaps get up to her knees and then maybe she would be able to crawl away and escape before Segal returned. The sudden movement was a bad idea. She made it onto her side before the dizzying pain over took her and she threw up in the mud close to her head. Lying on her side, waiting for the violent cycle of pain and dizziness to leave her be, Entarais knew that there was simply no way she could get up and ford the swamp without falling into it. And the endless echelon of bacteria swarming and breeding in that water would prove deadly if any given one of them were to inflame her open wound.

Her eyes rolled back and then forward again as she struggled to remain conscious. For an hour or so she fought against the exhaustion which was trying to coheres her to rest, but in the end she gave in and allowed sleep to claim her. Her last conception was of the canopy swirling around her.

--

"A swamp? Who would venture in there?" Sinis asked incredulously.

"Someone who does not want to be found." Lucretia replied. "It's had to track in a swamp. The mud never sets so the foot prints are always easily swayed, but can be easily followed. It's when you get into the water that makes it hard to trace for a person could have changed direction any number of times and may have come back on some other bank. We'll have to look sharp."

"Count on it." Anna said leading the way determinedly.

Orion shook his head at Anna's bullheadedness, but followed her anyway. Lucretia was not far behind. She had already pointed them in the right direction. When they descended down the slope, she would have to search for more signs, but for now she thought it better to let Anna lead the way. It would ease her anxiety somewhat, though it did nothing to ease Sinis' worries. He followed at the back and though worried, he did not let it show. However, he was certain Lucretia knew. She had stopped to give him a few lurking glances as he continued as though she expected him to turn tail and run. She could smell fear, he'd guessed, but Sinis was not giving in to expectations. He was not running.

As they came upon the steepest bank, Lucretia skirted to the front a large set of footprints emerged out of the water and climbed the bank just passed them. Time had past since they had been made, a few hours or so Lucretia would wager. Whoever it was, they had been in a hurry.

"We should turn back." Sinis started, but was cut short by Anna.

"No. These footprints are too large for her feet and they came from that direction." A feeling of foreboding settled in the Jovian's stomach as she thought about what may or may not lay just beyond the watery crypt of the swamp. "If she's anywhere, I'd say she's in that direction."

"It's logical that Entarais might still be there, after all, there is only one set of footprints." Orion concluded.

"Yes, but whoever took her could have been carrying her." Sinis argued.

"I don't think so." Lucretia interjected bending down and pointing to the footprints. "If he had these tracks would have been deeper, more set into the ground than they are."

"It's settled then." Anna said. "We'll continue in this direction."

This time not even Sinis opened his mouth to protest. Instead, he pitched forward eagerly after them, fear and a thirst to prove himself both burning entwined at his core.

--

Segal hacked another low hanging branch clean off of the tree ahead of him. "Damn underbrush."

There had to be a better way out of the forest, an easier on than the direction he had decided to start off in, but no, he just had to chose to come this way. He just had to. He was pissed off and it was his own fault and he knew it. Gods be damned though, he had thought it was a good idea at the time. He hacked another branch. It didn't appear as though he was getting anywhere at all in this mess of leaves and undergrowth.

The underbrush was reaching a growth of such magnitude that it was proving almost too thick to wade through. It was late in the afternoon. Night would be coming on soon and he would not be the one who wanted to be left to the mercy of the forest when darkness did fall. Even or especially a vagabond fears greatly for his own life. But he was not certain that Entarais would make it until the morning. The festering in her wound was strong and it could just as easily over take her completely, even if she was a fighter, there was no guarantee. If he brought back a healer, then there would be a better chance of survival for the girl, but at what risk to himself? Was this investment really worth it? Would it not be easier to kill her and move on?

Segal felt for the pouch at his belt where the aquamarine pendant on its beautiful silver chain rested comfortably protected in Galapagos leather. He would still be able to turn a small profit from the stolen gift he had pilfered from the girl, but why should he set all of his labors up to this point at so low a price? Anslem may have been a reclusive coward, but he had been charged with the safety and well being of the royal children on their pilgrimage to Saturn and he would pay a hefty price to ensure that the girl would be returned to him safely. Why not take what he could get and then move on? He'd be all the better for it, with two profits made.

Segal gripped the handle of his sword thoughtfully, taking notice of the fact that the skin of his hands was once again white. After he had beaten Drifus to certain death, his hands and his face had been splattered generously with red blood and had stayed that way until he found his way into the swamp and scrubbed them free of the carnage. There were various spots of blood littering his cloak and tunic also. Some of it he could guess had come from the beating and still more from Entarais' wound when he had to carry her.

The mean edge of a branch slapped him in the side of the face, scratching his cheek and causing another flare of red to be born on the drawn surface.

"Damn it!" He cursed loudly as the new affliction began to smart and sting as it oozed fresh blood. "This isn't worth it! If the gods take her, they take her. There's always another way, an easier way to make a profit."

Impulsive and resenting, Segal turned away and began the short trek back to the swamp where his wounded charge no doubt waited for him.

--

"Spore."

"What?"

"It's a patch of spore."

"What's spore?"

Lucretia was bent over a drying puddle of what looked to be blood mingling with mud and pieces of torn cloth. "Spore is a mixture of blood and hair left by a wounded animal which a hunter can track during a hunt."

"Oh." Both Sinis and Orion said in unison.

"It doesn't look good if this is Entarais though."

"Why?" Anna was front and center again, all of her attention on Lucretia.

The Marian pointed to the blood which had some air bubbles drying on its outer edges. "Those bubbles usually mean a serious wound which involves the lungs has been suffered. If so, she may not even still be alive."

It was a grim possibility that brought with it an eerie silence of sorts over the group.

"We should separate and spread out." Sinis announced. Everyone looked back at him and he felt the need to clarify himself. "If we do, we will have a better chance at covering more ground."

Anna nodded reluctantly. "He's right. We'll break off into groups, but stay in this area. After a short time, we will regroup here, understood?"

They all nodded and paired up. Sinis traipsing off in one direction with Orion following timidly behind him while Lucretia went walked cautiously off in the other. Anna stayed to inspect the ground. This blood was not old, though it was drying, she would venture to say that it whoever it came from was not far away from their current position. But who was the victim?

Entarais.

Her heart began to drum with the rapid and sharp, tense note of a snare in her ears at the thought of her dear friend, the one she admired and set above everyone else lying out there bleeding and injured. Who else could it be though? The dread that shot throughout her small frame caused all of her reason to be overlapped by a much stronger force which so often overrides the confines of logical thought: fear. She was truly afraid and not for her own life, but for the life of the friend she treasured.

Taking a deep steadying breath, she stood and reached out to push back the branches of the shrubbery obstructing her path. No one ever got anywhere taking heed of their own fears and reservations. To stare fear in the face, to know truly what it is and why it lives and then to waylay those fears, that is how the essence of life is promoted and the human spirit nurtured.

Anna began fighting her way through the thicket of the swamp, her knees shaking.

--

The steady rhythm of her heart beating in her ears roused the weakened Entarais back into consciousness. She opened her mouth and sucked in a greedy breath full of spongy air, but violently coughed it back out as the action caused a pocket of phlegm in the back of her throat to launch into unwanted action. Cerulean eyes, once as vital and deep as the diverse, swirling oceans of Neptune, were now dull and listless, shimmering tears lining their corners. The girl did not know what to think for she could no longer contemplate anything clearly. The illness which had plundered her body with an invader's unheralded vengeance had robbed her of the ability she cherished so much along with the full knowledge and use of the only attribute she credited herself with: her innate and unquenchable curiosity.

Many times before she embarked on this pilgrimage, her uncle had had her punished for running off into the hills to explore what she had not see or for swimming alone in the cove to explore its numerous schools of colorful fish and to take solace in the bright and diverse patchwork of raw creativity which seemed to naturally pour forth from the coral reef there, a true work of art which no god could have had a hand in. But now, the only tool she was never without. The curiosity which gave her life meaning and purpose had been vanquished unjustly by the demon destroying all that she was from the inside out. Without it, she was empty and unwove. Even in her delirious state, she could feel that much of herself missing.

Along with her faithful companion, curiosity, had fled all of her strength, flowing out of her back as easily as garnet wine would from a spilled glass. Even the simple and natural act of taking one breath after another became a chore. Her chest felt heavy, as though someone had placed a board there and had piled it high with a mason's stones or even with a few boulders and that with slow and equal precision, she was beginning to be crushed to death by its invisible weight.

There were pains low in her abdomen and in her back. Why she did not understand, nor did she know. All she understood was that she was in pain and nothing else in the world seemed more vivid than the sharp pangs erupting from those areas. Why was she still awake? The fever should have claimed her by now, should have taken her.

Oh! How her head swam! What was the canopy, the color of garnets and the sky a magnificent orange? When had the colors turned? The throbbing in her head and the seasick clenching and unclenching of her stomach made the state she was in one of Hell in the land of the living.

Mercy comes…

Her eyelids became heavy and slowly began a steady descent until the dull blue of her eyes was nothing more than a reminiscent glitter of the crescent moon which came out on only the coolest of nights and her breathing, the very stay of life, shallowed copiously. If only she could let go, be blown away and tossed through the storm. She didn't care whether of not she survived. What could be worse than this hell she already suffered in? Would not relinquishing her soul to the Gods' cool embrace be far better a thing than staying here?

Heat laced beneath her half closed eyelids. It was the only inclination that her rational self, bound, tied, and gagged by the ruthless enemy which had captured her body and imprisoned all of her ability for free will was truly ashamed at the selfish thoughts she was conjuring up. Had she been older, she may have realized that she was only human and that in times of crisis such thoughts, initially, are natural, but being so young she blamed all of her flaws on her strength of character.

Even then though, this shame was subconscious, for in her ill state, she could not have thought clearly enough to have come to that conclusion.

The thought of those she would leave behind, did not enter her mind. Her uncle, her aunt and cousin Mariner or even of her friends who had become a second family to her in their short time together. What of Anna? What of Lucretia and Alexandra or of Orion and Sinis? Where would they be without her? Even then, she knew that in their group, she was of little importance at the moment and that almost all of the royal children would be able to return to their lives practically unscathed. Why would they dwell on her? They hadn't dwelled on the death of their first teacher Anshar, why should they dwell on her own? One of them, she was sure, wouldn't get over it so easily though.

Anna.

Her best friend, she would not forget her. What if she were to give in to her selfish yearnings and let go? What would become of the one person out of the lot of them she knew really cared for her? Would she be able to recover from such a loss? In her fabricated state of mind, Entarais refused or rather could not assume the fact that she might be overstating her importance in the whole scheme of things. However, perhaps it was better that she did not come to that realization for these thoughts of Anna were what kept her breathing and flourishing. Floating in a colorless precipice she no longer thought, no longer recognized, she simply was.

Where was she, really? How had she gotten there? Entarais couldn't remember.

There was a rustle in the branches near her, but Entarais did not hear it. By this point, she had sunk so low into a warm, hazy delirium, which reminded her of being submerged passed her ears in water, that it was practically impossible for her to have noticed it. Out of the bush, the Jovian child stumbled and fell like an anvil to the ground when her foot caught on a upraised root. With a groan she hit the ground, but slowly she was getting used to her natural clumsiness and without much effort she steadily righted herself again.

"Ouch." Ann rubbed at the ache in the back of her neck, vainly trying to work the muscle back into fruition.

Entarais, eyes closed, took in a sharp breath and, even though she was not near enough to see her limp form clearly, Anna heard it. Immediately, she sprang to her feet. At first, in the dim few seconds of silence following the sound, she tried to convince herself that she had only been dreaming, but when a pain filled groan, faint though it was, reached her ears from beyond the rise in swampy land, she knew better.

"Entarais?" Anna called in a whispered tone, more to answer her own questions than to cater to her friend, and then in a more frantic tone as she began her frenzied trek up the rise. "Entarais! I'm coming!"

Anna pawed through the swamp grass like some mad animal. Parting the long blades, rapidly, she wasn't quite mentally prepared, for the sight ahead of her. Sprawled out on the ground, Entarais' limp form was as pale and fragile as newly fallen snow. The ground around her, like the circle surrounding the Vitruvian man, was soaked a deep red which even colored the murky liquid in the moist mud a filthy burgundy, practically a garnet. What was worse, Entarais' body looked drained, as if the very blood pouring out of the infected wound had taken her life and all likelihood of survival with it.

Anna shank back only a moment, her forward motion impeded by the sheer carnage of the sight, but she soon continued forward and rushed to her friend's side. She reached down and touched the bitter ice of Entarais hand. The skin of the back of the Neptunian's hand was so pale and cold, with her eyes clouded over with tears as they were, that it appeared to Anna as though it was almost a light shade of blue.

"Entarais?" Anna asked leaning over her and stroking her ashen cheek in a soothing motion. "Entarais, please, you have to wake up, please…"

Her heartfelt pleas were lost on unconscious ears. Desperately, the Jovian bent down to touch her forehead with that of Entarais' own burning one, allowing the tears to start running down her cheeks in streams. There was no hope. Without hope where were they? How did they stand a chance without it? Choice could not be so powerful a thing. They _had_ chosen to search for Entarais, but finding her was only half of the battle. Chance played the other side of their hand. If by chance Entarais died and never revived then the power of their choice to come after would be useless. What would be the point then? I wasn't to be true! As Anna sobbed, her tears running onto Entarais' face and neck also. It couldn't be! Then there would be no point to anything they did, to any attempt they made in any endeavor because chance would be all powerful and she knew that that was not the way of things.

It was not. The power of choices was not so easily shot down or defined.

"Please…" A whisper sank in thin air and then, dejected and aggrieved beyond any point of sudden redemption, at a loss to the moment, she wept.

* * *

**Author's notes:** To be continued…Tune in for the next exciting chapter of the _Prologue_ for further details. Heh. All kidding aside, I hope this chapter is to everyone's liking. It has been a long work in progress, but it was worth the write. Also I just wanted to clear up any confusion as to how old the royal children are in these chapters:

Entarais 6 years of age, born in 570

Anna 6 years of age, born in 570.

Lucretia 6 years old, born in 570.

Alexandria 5 years old, born in 571.

Orion 5 years old, born in 571.

Sinis 6 years old, born in 570.

Regelle has not been born yet. Remember, she was born in 579, so this takes place before her birth.

I apologize for this chapter taking a little longer to post than I implied in the first part, but life and all of its craziness has intervened a lot in the past few months. Keeping with that, I would like to dedicate this chapter (though I know no one will read this and care) to my grandmother who has just recently passed on. I'm not sure if my grandmother ever knew that I loved to write, but I know that she would have supported me in it as she always supported and encouraged me in everything I have done. If you have any questions about this chapter or anything else concerning the story please let me know. Thank you for reading, please drop me a review or two and tell me what you think of it! Likes, dislikes, flamers, I welcome it all! By the way, who is your favorite original character in this story so far and why? It's just a curiosity of mine, as these characters in a way both foreshadow and pave the way for the senshi who come after them. I hope you all enjoyed the read! Thank you all for everything and have a great week!


	10. The Light of Life

**Chapter 9: The Light of Life**

_**King Elieon's reign upon the moon, year 586**_

_**The Imperial City, Uranus**_

_**Castle Deagelle**_

The quiet of the somber Uranian night filled the area surrounding the walls of the Imperial palace with a suffocating kind of dread. In like kind, the outstretched flames of the torches wavered with the raised voices drifting from the walls of the great hall.

"I have heard enough!" King Bastion roared as he sat atop his throne in his hall. "You would so betray your king so when I have shown you years of faith and loyality, always listening to your visions. Always paying heed to every word spoken. Take him to prison!"

"No! No!" the chamberlain protested struggling as Jafari was held up under his arms by two armored guards. "My lord, have mercy. Please! I have given you a lifetime of loyalty, please spare your chamberlain."

The captain of the guards walked forward before his king. "He speaks the truth, my king, never was there a day when he did not serve you—"

"Do I have to have you locked away in the dungeons too, Pietro?!" The king inquired heatedly. "I can only afford myself one rebel in this court, Captain. I have no need of your patronizing of my judgment."

"But my king, he is my father-", Pietro took another step forward, but his words were halted savagely by those of the king.

"He is a traitor!!" King Bastion's face was red with anger as he stood and lifted a hand to the guards. "Take the good chamberlain to the dungeons and lock him away, never to be freed under my rule again."

"No!" Jafari struggled against the armored arms pulling him back and dragging him across the stone floor. "Pietro! Do not let them imprison me! Do not betray your own father!"

The captain of the guard winced at his father's words and fought the urge to rush to his side. He instead fixed him with a steely gaze and shouted, "Betray you?! You betrayed me and this court the moment you began conversing in secret with Scaveus! We trusted you to remain loyal to this king and this country or was that too much to ask of you?!"

Jafari lurched forward with all of his strength, the guards restraining him struggling to pull him back. "I remain loyal!! To this country and to this family! But so long as I breathe, no princess will rule as queen on that throne. No abomination will break the bonds of tradition. The old ways are sacred. How dare you break them, my king! You bring dishonor on generations of you brethren without any remorse. How dare you!!"

The guards pulled at Jafari, their gaits barely matching his frenzied strength as he resisted them. Bastion was now leaning his head on his hand, rubbing his forehead wearily. When the Uranian king spoke his voice was barely a whisper of what it had been earlier, his posture slumped like that of a broken man.

"Remove him from my sight." The king commanded as two more armored guards rushed from his side to help their struggling comrades. "And lock him away in our deepest dungeon. He is never to be seen or heard from again."

Pietro's anger was at its breaking point, but he stilled his quiver fists and bade himself to remain calm in the sight of the king. When he spoke his voice was steady, but insistent. "Sir,lock him in one of the towers and confine him to the smallest cell. We will hear nothing more of him. I will look after him, I promise."

His captain's pleas fell on deaf ears as the king's jaw clenched as he stood. "You plot to betray me in my home, where my wife sleeps, where my daughter plays! And you dare call yourself a loyal man!" He then gestured to his guards, "Lock him away where no one is to see him."

"My king, please consider-" Pietro tried, but quieted quickly as the king turned around and focused his vehement gaze on him.

The King raised his hand to silence the captain of the guard and when he did speak it was in a deadly whisper.

"Enough, Pietro, it is done." Bastion looked at the younger man, his soul aflame and vengeful, his eyes ablaze with a sinister, unkempt fire and from it Pietro gathered the good sense to hold his tongue from making any further pleas towards the man. No matter how much he desired clemency for his father, he knew the king was not someone to cross.

"Bastion, no! Vile betrayer! Of your people, of your class, of your bloodline!" Jafari's voice protested as he was pulled from the room fighting, his eyes ablaze with the fervor of a crazed man. "Your time will come!! When the end ensues, you will be one of the first to die!"

The chamberlain's desperate voice died away as the thick doors of the throne room were closed to the corridor outside. If even his most trusted seer had turned on him, then what of the rest of his court? Who was he to trust? Could he trust? The king let out a long breath and all but collapsed in his seat, one anguished tear streaking its way down his cheek before he wiped it away. No one was to see him like this._ What am I to do now? _

-------

_**King Elieon's Reign Upon the Moon 577**_

_**Anatropous, North Western Jupiter **_

It was a cold mist, always in the north of Jupiter, a cold mist. Lucretia shivered unnoticeably beneath her thick woolen cloak. This moist, green land was so much different in climate and in make than the sun scorched country she hailed from and even after sheltering for years on such planets as diverse as Pluto and Saturn, the climate change was still a difficult adjustment for her to transverse with every new planet they traveled to. Jupiter, the largest planet in the Sol system was no exception to this general rule, though the proud Marian would never admit this to her schoolmates.

So much had changed with them over the past half year, they had grown up on the inside as well as the outside, though they still nurtured several of their characteristic traits without any want or wish of letting them go, such as Lucretia's stubborn pride or Anna's obstinate hard headedness or Sinis' driven ambition to show the world what he was made of and that no one especially not his classmates should underestimate them. All of these things remained very obvious and real traits of the royal children, but instead of diminishing as they often do in most, they were shaped, always in flux in response to the environment and experiences the children were engrossed in. It was in this state that the children came to Jupiter, the birthplace of all diversity in the universe.

After their shuttle had landed, the children had been ushered into long sinewy boats hewn out of sturdy oak and reinforced with oakum to finishing the journey towards reaching their first destination: the Jutland. The Jutland was a country to the north of Anatropous ruled by the tribes of the Weagmundings to the west and the Scythians to the east. None of the children had been told much about it accept that it was a peaceful place and that they had nothing to fear from it. Lucretia being naturally suspicious along with many of her comrades from their previous stay on Saturn was untrusting of this vague comment and from where they sat in the bow of the medium boat, she saw the perfect opportunity to question Anna about it, but it still remained to be seen if she would be able to get any words out of her.

The Jovian princess had been abnormally quiet since their departure from Saturn. It had not been unexpected, Anna's detachment of herself from the real world. In the days following Entarais' disappearance she had grown quiet and refused to leave the muted sanctity of her bed chamber. It had taken days of coaxing for their host to convince her to come out of the refuge where she had been hiding herself away from the present and when she had finally reemerged it was clear that she was not well.

Her naturally sun kissed skin, only a shade or two lighter than Lucretia's own, had taken on a sickly pallor and around her eyes dark circles from a mixture of loss of rest and uncontrollable fits of crying had formed and anyone who tried to engage the Jovian in conversation found her suddenly and perfectly mute. Her comrades did not need to be told by one of the palace healers what the cause of her dire symptoms where. By just looking in her eyes they could tell that the frightening pallor and unnatural melancholy where a combination of self blame and misplaced sense of failure, guilt, and premature loss.

It had been six months since Entarais disappearance and they had all felt the loss for they had all been there, had all been presence when she was taken away. They had worked together, had tried to save her, but in the end all of their combined efforts had been in vain and she had been stolen away from them by that criminal of a man before any help could arrive. They had all felt the guilt as they had been lead back to Draupnir Castle by a mounted guard sent for their safety, but none of them had really shed any tears save Anna, they were all too in shock at the sudden happening. It had been the quietest night Lucretia could remember, quite possibly the most silent night of her life because the silence had not fully dissipated not even over the months. That was when everything had begun to change.

Anna lost her usual outgoing nature, her fun loving sense of humor snuffed out by her insurmountable grief at the loss of her best friend. Sinis had become more cynical if it was possible and Orion had become more quietly contemplative. Had the Mercurian ever been a quiet boy before, he was twice that now. And in the coming weeks after the accident they had all been dealt a second very real loss. Early one morning, a message from Venus had been delivered to the Castle before the breakfast hour while the children had been still sound asleep in their beds. No one had been told what the message entailed, but by dawn Alexandria had been awoken and told to pack her things. At breakfast the Venian had not been present and Lucretia had thought it odd for, as petite as the princess of beauty and light was, she had a voracious appetite and had never once passed on a meal.

After they had been excused, Lucretia with Orion alongside her had gone to investigate the

Venian's quarters and to their astonishment the two had found that the golden haired girl and all of her belongings were nowhere to be seen. The room had been stripped of any and all royalties and embellishments and Alexandria was missing. Strict questioning of a servant who had been passing by in the corridor had assuaged the children's fears that yet another one of them had been taken as he explained that the girl had been called away by her parents and was en route back to Venus to meet her family. It had not been as abrupt a loss as Entarais' had been, but it was still a mortal blow to the morale of their small group and especially to Lucretia. She would never admit to it, but she had changed in response to the departure of the Venian.

Lucretia had, for a time, become more reserved and a quiet bitterness had taken root in her though she was seldom one to show it to the others. An unnecessary response to the wonderment of why she had been deserted, as it appeared, but the closest person to her of their group. In retrospect, her reaction was Anna in reverse. Instead of regressing inward entirely, she had thrown herself into grueling physical regimes. The last of their months spend on Saturn was spent by the stern Marian mostly in the training yard.

She had never been one for violence, unlike her kin, but the art of warfare fascinated her and proved to be a soul saving Boone in the months when nothing but physical and mental discipline could save her from the vengeful inward yearnings of her unanswered questions and innermost insecurities. Why had Alexandria left them? She knew it was absurd, but she could not keep the unbidden fear from her mind for long. Could it possibly have been in response to her growing closeness to the girl?

Lucretia knew, as the closest person to Alex in their little group, that the girl wrote frequent letters to her family back on Venus detailing their exploits and experiences across the planets. Had Alex told her family about the odd bonds they and their comrades shared? Had her parents somehow taken offense to their friendship? On the outside Venus and Mars were allies , together in all things, but between the two populations there was growing malcontent and having a royal Venian child, a princess groomed and styled from birth to rule in the wealthiest family in the whole of the Sol system befriend the first cousin of the self appointed barbarian Tarquin king of Mars probably would not have sounded pleasing to their ears. Surely though, it would have had to have been a more pressing matter for Alex to have been called home as she was? Lucretia did not know nor did Anna or Sinis or even the intellectual prince of Mercury. The mystery had never been solved.

It was a possibility that, even through her days and nights of mental and physical work, had continued to plague the Martian princess to no end and so, even on the shores of the River Esmerald as they floated comfortably down the green waters of Jupiter.

Anna sat with her elbows resting on her knees and her weight resting on her arms. Emerald green eyes were dull, almost non attentive as they scanned the landscape around them. Not even the wet, fresh smell of her native north could rouse the girl, it only served to add a feeling of nostalgia to her already troubled soul. To anyone and everyone around her she appeared simply numb, not even a living breathing being, a corpse brought along for the ride and only that. That was why when she felt the light tap on her shoulder she barely acknowledged it at first until it came again, this time harder, a little more insistent. She swallowed dazedly and turned towards the ever stoic and contemplative form of her Marian comrade.

"Anna, what is the Jutland? Is it really as peaceful as they say?" Lucretia asked in a careful whisper.

On the inside Anna was laughing bitterly to herself, but on the outside nothing changed. She was a corpse still with life barely breathed into it. "Yes. The Weagmundings and the Scythians are at peace with one another."

Lucretia seemed disposed by the answer and looked around her into the muddled fog that hung along the wooded shores at their sides, obscuring any potential enemy from view, but she did not ask again. The events of the past year had taught her that there was no point in being overly cautious. Let what will come their way, they would face it in the only way they could, in the only way they had: together.

Life was not so for them now.

The calming lull of the lapping of the river water against the keel of the boat caused Sinis' eyelids to droop. The prince of darkness and death would not admit it freely to anyone, but he was exhausted. The shuttle flight from Saturn to Jupiter had not been without discontent. Not of his own violation, he had to add. It was due to the odd ways in which his classmates were behaving. Each one of them always seemed lost in their own little worlds, unwilling to face the one they were traveling in. At first, he had thought Lucretia to be the one the most in touch with the present, but she was always off on her own someplace. One afternoon, he had found her in on of the many practice yards of Draupnir Castle exerting all of the repressed feelings she never allowed to show in controlled strains of focused fervor that Lucretia of Mars would become famous for many years later in adulthood and he had come upon the conclusion that she was not one to trifle with.

Sinis closed his eyes as a long yawn escaped his lips and drew the undivided attention of all of his classmates which he steadily ignored with practiced ease. Out of all of the days of his life thus far, the ones he spent on Saturn were the most vivid in his memory and though they would not always remain so, he was silently sure they would be ones he would never forget. The muddied ground broken and specked in the Neptunian girl's blood. Anna holding her gut and crying uncontrollably. Alexandria had not failed them. She had somehow gained an audience with the illusive Lord Anslem and had convinced him to send a rally of guards to their aide, but it had been too late. Entarais had been taken, Anna had been beaten down, and all of the other children and the guards tracking them had arrived only to find the grieving Jovian writhing hopelessly in the swamp grass. None of them had been the same after that moment. Each one of them had changed in the short time since then.

Lucretia had thrown herself into a restrictive training regime which isolated her from the rest of them for long hours everyday, not that Sinis particularly cared where it concerned the Marian anyway. Orion had become more stoic and was not given to crying nearly so easily as he used to. Even just turning in the small boat to look at him now, Sinis could see the difference in his Mercurian friend from what he had been months ago. Alexandria had been sent for and carted off to Venus shortly after the mishap and Sinis had formulated her family had become worried for her safety after the ordeal concerning the Neptunian's capture. And Anna was now practically a mute, almost never uttering a word unless requested to by a tutor or superior of any kind. They had lost their childhood lifeblood, all of them, earlier than most and it had taken its toll on the young royals.

Sinis would admit it openly to no one, but he too had changed some. Having Entarais snatched out from under their eyes in this little fictional safety they had created for themselves had solidified something in him that had only wavered on the verge of death and life before: scorn. He now knew his purpose. He would show them, show them all. Out of all of that chaos, his desires had been coaxed from a liquid structure to a bodily form that became almost a different entity entirely. A part of himself that thought for itself and only used his body as a shell to hide itself from the others who, every time they admonished him with a disappointing look, added spite to its invisible wound. He was not the prince of Saturn any longer, but a _thing_, an indefinable creature that even he failed to understand. All he knew was the he had this power to him, he could feel it growing and shaping inside of himself without his prompting. He was not the same pathetic boy who mourned the lost of a friend, he was something better. That momentary self resentment had molded itself into this new animal inside him which drove him in pursuit of his deepest desires so beyond human compassion or concerns. He would show them, he would show them all, that he was more than they thought he was.

Sinis swallowed quietly and removed his gaze from the polished bottom of the boat where it had retreated in his short reverie and brought it up to slowly scan the faces of the other children who had all turned their attention to other venues. It was in this space that the entity reared its beastly head within him and beneath the controlled amethyst eyes that mirrored nothing of the conflict inside him, cauldrons of envy and enmity brewed and bubbled with every glance he gave the children he did not ever once reference as his 'friends'.

Lucretia shifted uneasily beneath her cloak. Just because a country and people may proclaim to be peaceful, does not mean they really are. Who would know how quickly and ruthlessly power can change hands then a Marian? But the status of these people was not all that worried Lucretia. She knew Anna was a Jovian, the daughter of their Northern king, but who knew how these people would receive her and receive them? This was not her tribe, these were not Anna's people and Lucretia knew from experience that it would not do for them to be in the middle of clashing tribes. She closed her eyes and tried not the catch the splash of remembered blood against her eyelids.

The keel of the small boat creaked and keened as they continued their voyage down the river. The water level was not so high now, as the spring rains had not yet arrived and so it made the voyage a lulling one which was not as swift as they had been expecting.

Orion pulled his cobalt cloak closer to himself in the cool morning air. This land they had been brought to seemed ten times vaster than even those of Saturn which they had wandered at length and the trees hanging over the shoreline were humongous, wider than two leagues each in meter. The Mercurian prince had always considered himself a knowledgeable boy, but Jupiter was beyond his bounds. What little facts he knew were cultural and, he was sure, would be of little or no use to them in the long run.

At one point, the river current became faster and the shore evened out. This was where they set ashore and made themselves ready to disembark into this strange new world that was Jupiter.

-----

_**King Elieon's reign upon the moon, year 587**_

_**The Imperial City, Uranus**_

_**Castle Deagelle**_

Queen Lucilla strode down the empty torch lit corridor, her dainty feet marching in a smart soldier-like fashion uncommon to her character. Any onlooker, if they paid close enough attention, could tell that the stubborn mild mannered lady was anything but on this particular evening. The strain of not having a male heir had taken a strain the queen had not expected on her marriage with the king. In public they were both behaved according to the standards of their society. He was the dutiful warrior king who always wore the armor of their Imperial horsemen, which had been designed more for use than for decoration.

She was the obedient wife and queen who was generous to her husbands whims and who also completed the domestic tasks and rituals. It was not a thing spoken of or widely known outside the palace walls, but the queen provided the strong base from which her husband could gather strength when his own walls were on the verge of collapse. It was part of her responsibility as royal wife and understanding lover, but now the task had doubled.

The whole world around them was deteriorating though the Uranian court always shrugged off any insinuations that it may indeed be so far under the situation that it had no idea how to deal with it. The inner planets were involved in a full scale civil war just between themselves and the rest of the Sol system was left to puzzle over how to deal with the repercussions. A war of this magnitude had never occurred before, not since the peoples and their planets had been made mortal and had been left on their own to fend for themselves by the Great Nine.

No one knew quite what to do or how to react. After a pardonable silence of drawn out hostility, Mars had declared war upon its closest ally, Venus and had invaded the country within a week. Jupiter, being engaged in a number of valuable trade agreements with the little red planet which were detrimental to its survival as a civilized society, had entered the fray on behalf of its Marian ally, yielding its massive military resources to the whims of the Marian king, Tarquinius.

Mercury, the least combative of them all, had for a number of years been engaged in an agreement with Venus which would guarantee them protection should a foreign army chose to invade their lands. Should a similar situation occur with the Venians then the agreement would act in reverse and Mercury would be obligated to come to their aid and so it was and had been for almost a year now. Full blown warfare undertaken on the plains of Venus had sent the monarchs of all of the planets into massive shock, most of all the King of Uranus. Not only was he dealing with the dangerous threat of treason within his own kingdom, but now he had to decide whether or not to take sides in the epic battle. The other outers, Pluto, Saturn, and Neptune were taking a neutral stance to the conflict at hand. What went on beyond their borders was not their business. Uranus had always had an inward facing diplomatic policy and so it should remain. The traditional ways had always worked before so why discard them now? Let the world rot around them for all they cared, out of the ashes they would rise, powerful and unharmed to rebuild the world to their liking. But it was not all so simple at that.

The standing of the king and his bloodline was precarious. He had no male heir to succeed him. His only child was a daughter who, although beloved and sheltered by him, could not by the laws of their people succeed him and it worried the king and his court to no end. In the years since Regelle's birth, the king had been the single target for numerous assassination attempts and it was beginning to run him weary into the ground. Paranoia was beginning to infiltrate his mind and body. Only a year ago, he had condemned his trusted chamberlain, Jafari, to the depths of the Imperial dungeons. Prisoners sent there were never pardoned. The cell they were thrown into was the one they would die and decompose in. There was no mercy anymore. King Bastion was no longer as beloved as he once was with the people of his kingdom. By condemning a life long friend and servant essentially to death he had stuck a silent sense of panic into the hearts of the population. Now, he would be feared. All would know him as a formidable opponent.

Civil unrest within Uranus had taken a foothold within the walls of the Imperial city. People talked of the paranoid king and how he never left his palace. Merchants returning from trading in the South spoke of the prosperous Southern king, Amenemhat and how his laws and reforms kept his people both safe and happy and who had, by means of arms, retained the Eastern colony of Senusret after it had revolted. The Southern king was so taken with his own achievements that he had named his newly born son after the colony he had reclaimed for his kingdom.

The people of the North were both naturally envious and suspicious of these great deeds they heard of taking place in the South. A great foreboding had settled over the Imperial city in these dark days for the northern kingdom that nothing could assuage. Their wealth and great prestige which used to be the pride of Uranus was melting into historical obscurity and the people were over taken by nostalgia. This yearning for their glorious past allowed for a rebirth of sorts, an embrace of the radical, of civil unrest in all of its blighted forms. Deviants were beginning to make themselves known by cavorting in public and meeting in secret to protest the legitimacy of the king's bloodline. Among these thorn bushes alive with threats there slithered a serpent of very real power and treachery. He was known as Scaveus the Tyrant to the people of the kingdom. He was the son of one of Bastion's uncles and was a claimant to the throne of the northern kingdom.

He had first made a name for himself, long before Regelle had even been born, when Bastion had first been crowned king. He had lands to the West and there his father was a great lord, but Scaveus was not satisfied with his lot. His uncle, the previous king of the north, had always been rather fond of him and so he and Bastion had grown up more in the style of brothers than of cousins and both had journeyed on the Great Exchange together as children and had remained close up until the day Bastion was announced as king. In that first year, tensions within the ruling noble classes had rose and sides had been taken. A revolt ensued and was drawn out by the combatants on both sides into a four month conflict. It ended when Scaveus engaged his cousin's troops in battle and his forces had been outmatched, fleeing the battleground like a she wolf's frightened whelps. Bastion had ridden into the circle and found his cousin had been surrounded by his men and wrestled to the ground, still fighting.

Out of a sense of misled brotherly justice, Bastion had not sentenced Scaveus to death for his crimes, but had rather banished him out of the north never to return under strict penalty of death. The wound made that day had been deep and continued to fester into the present day. Therein a grudge lay and with Bastion's failure to procure a male heir from his bloodline, Scaveus had found an easy passage back into the hearts of the people and he was taking full advantage of it. Lucilla did not even pretend to hide the fact that his rumored presence in the capitol again made her nervous. She had always feared for Bastion's life, but her belief in her husband's strength and influence had led her to grow comfortable when it came to fears for her only child. She felt that Regelle was well taken care of. Her father loved her, which was more than what Lucilla had thought he would at her birth and he wanted her to succeed him as the first queen of Uranus, but that fact put her young life in serious danger.

Lucilla closed her eyes and chocked back a sob, "If only I could have a son, it would give way to a golden world."

Lucilla loved her daughter, but she also knew that Regelle could never really live safely and happily until the family was secured in its own power. When there were potential assassins around every bend. The young princesses only safety was to be kept under her parents' supervised protection, but that was not a life. Lucilla grimaced. Already her child had been forced to forgo the Great Exchange, a normal routine that all royal children went through which served a diplomatic purpose as well as a practical one, giving the youngsters the chance to form bonds between themselves and perhaps one day their countries. Regelle had been held back. It had not been what the Queen had wanted, but it was for her own good. Regelle was a bright child, with a gift for picking things up quickly, but as the only direct heir of her father's bloodline, her parents could not risk her education and in like kind expose her to the dangerous world. It was one of the things, Lucilla regretted most when it came to her daughter, but it had to be done.

On the other side of the palace the very little girl in question balanced unsteadily on small stone rim of the well to the stables, her arms spread eagled out in the air to balance herself. She leaned to the side unknowingly and lost her balance somewhat, those same arms flailing to keep what little was left of her equilibrium as she skirted from one side to the other, from foot to foot, finally jumping down to the ground when her foothold on the watery edge became too precarious. Once on stable ground, she twirled around carelessly in the beautiful sunshine of the afternoon.

At her waist, a short wooden practice sword held to her side, slid snuggly beneath her belt. The Uranian child halted suddenly, an odd feeling over taking her. A familiar one, she felt powerful in a way she had never known. The wind around her grew and blew the wisps of short hair off from her forehead, exposing a golden mark which no one else was around to see. The inner power swelled within her and the wind cycloned around her small form.

The horses in the stables neighed and started as the branches of the scantly surrounding desert trees bent beneath the sudden onslaught. However, as quickly as the power had overtaken her, it faded and the wind came back down to the comforting breeze it had once been. Regelle did not know why she felt the sudden loss as greatly as she did. It was almost as if there was a void in her chest now.

However, unbeknownst to the small girl, the mark of the planet Uranus had appeared on her forehead during that short moment and even in the wake of it, still lingered.

The mark of the chosen. The mark of those to lead, not to follow.

This carefree princess would find her life a more eventful one than ever she could imagine.

-----

_**Year 577**_

_**Valley Semiramis**_

_**Providence of Ambrosia, Venus**_

It was a ripe day. The sun was high in the fair Venian atmosphere, sailing in and out of view due to the white stratus clouds traveling freely across the vast expanse of the gold sky due to the light breeze that was blowing. The tall grasses of the Valley Semiramis were green and vibrant in contrast to the surrounding heavens. The slender stalks swayed gently to and fro concealing the seemingly shorter stems of secular Gallica and their maroon petals from destruction along with the more delicate ginger blossoms of the fragrant Clivia miniata.

It was summer and hot, but Prince Alexi, having spent a great deal of time in his uncle's lands; did not mind it. In fact, he lavished it as if in worship of the sun god Apollo as he lay, sheltered by the long grasses surrounding him. As Alexandria approached the resting place of her older cousin, she saw this characteristic gesture and could not keep the teasing smile from her face. Relinquishing in the impossible effort, she loomed stealthily, the only sound being heard not of her footfalls, but of the gentle sweep of the blades of grass against the edges of her legs mingling discretely with the orange satin of her skirt.

The Golden Prince, as he was known throughout the universe for his status as the only son of the richest kingdom in the Sol system, lay comfortably at ease in the plush unintended bed the day had given him. His form was not muscular, but long and stringy and as no one would merely gleam so from his overly grandiose mention, Alexi was a simply a royal boy, no different or more special than other boys his own age who lived and labored across the planet Venus. Since Alexandria's arrival home she had been struggling to see her cousin in this new light. Simply a boy….

For as long as she could remember, Alexandria had always known her cousin by his status and by his image. It was not often in those days that she had see much of her uncle the king or his family and so her thoughts concerning them had been formed almost completely from the descriptions other family members gave them or of the popular opinion of the general population. She had very few memories of spending any time with them and even sketchier ones concerning what they looked like exactly, though for the king that was not hard as his image was stamped on every genuine coin in the realm. Still, she had to admit that it had never felt odd then to not have known them personally, her family.

Her father, as a brother and vassal of the king, was the only one to see him or his children on a regular basis and very sparingly did he ever invite his children or wife to accompany him on the journey and when he did it was usually one or two of Alexandria's brothers who where chosen to go. Most often the eldest and second eldest. Women on Venus were not seen as inferior to the men in anyway, unlike in most other cultures of the day, but royal business such as what her father dealt in was not a realm in which Venian women of noble birth thrived in, the only exception being of the Queen Circe and her ladies, but her aunt had always treated Alexandria differently, as if she could do anything she wanted, maybe even be queen in her stead one day.

Circe had always treated her niece differently. She always thought Alexandria unique among the royal daughters of her family. That was why she had been called home to Ambrosia in the first place, to fulfill her destiny she had been told, but what that destiny was in the eyes of the king and queen, she did not know. Distracted, Alexandria wondered if she ever would? There were so many things they did not know, so many blind spots they had to feel their way through in life just to get to a certain destination that might not even be the right one. What was the point of it all if life was essentially nothing more than a sightless fumble through uncertain terrain? Why survive? Why persevere if there might not be anything for you at the end of that road? Did her uncle know the answer? Did the king of the moon even? Did the ever omniscient Plutonians? She did not know for sure, but she would bet they didn't or if they did they would be keeping it to themselves. From where Alexandria came from, Plutonians among various other races were not known for keeping promises, but she was not sure that she could still believe that point of view after visiting Pluto first hand for herself.

So many things had changed within her since she had left her home in the last year to join the Great Exchange. After spending so long a time with a group of companions of strangers from different planets and diverse cultural backgrounds, she found her views and thoughts changed significantly. As small as it sounded, Alex had never thought she would think differently than her family on anything. After all, they were royals, they were supposed to be the most educated and advanced of their population so shouldn't their thinking too match that precedent? Theirs was the Golden Planet. People in systems far and wide new of the vast wealth and enculturation of the planet of Venus, mostly because its trade empire spanned beyond the borders of most known systems here.

It was an odd experience for Alexandria, especially at her age, to realize the simple knowledge that the views her society held of the world were somewhat closed minded and were possibly not the best to believe in.

Prince Alexi popped one blue eye open and peered up at his cousin lazily. "You look like a heathen in that color, princess."

Alexandria looked down at the red shirt she had belted at her waist to fit in with her orange skirt. It was a vibrant dark red, a Marian hue, cleaner now then when it had been given to her on Saturn, but it still carried the scent of jasmine and sage that she had adored basking in for every day of the last two years.

A haughty smirk rose to Alexandria's lips at her cousin's distasteful comment, "It suits me fine for the purposes of today unlike your attire, dear cousin. Flee from your father's clutches this afternoon did you?" Here she paused as he opened both of his eyes to glare at her and with a charm almost natural to all Venian women, she deflected him by batting her eyes at him innocently and pressed on with words that were meant to be anything but in their intent, "And here I thought you were growing up, finally."

The prince scowled at her as he sat up and propped himself up on his elbows. Venus was a rich paradise, a angelic world and their family made up the divinely ordained ruling class. The Gods had smiled on them. Theirs was the Golden family, their symbol was the Ambrosian Eagle, a strong and predatory bird that soared through the skies with dignified ease. No hunter had ever shot one down and there was no limit to how high they could fly. The mountains could not even reach them, so swift and benighted by nothing were they. He was a golden son of Venus, why should he have to grow up so soon? So quickly? He was not yet a man. True, he was nearing the age of fourteen, the age of accepted manhood on Venus, but he was not yet there. Why push him so? Why put so much pressure on him to be there in that vice of maturity and responsibility?

"I do not see the haste in worrying about what I shall be like when I am king now." Alexi swallowed what was left of his boyish pride and humiliated dignity in confiding such things to a girl and his cousin. "That is still a fair time off yet. After all, I am not yet a man."

"But you will be in a year's time." Alexandria retorted logically.

Sorted indignation rose up in Alexi's chest. "Do you not think I know that, princess?"

"You do not behave as though you do." Alexandria continued well after the horrified hurt look perched on his features. "Think Alexi, should something happen to your father within the next fortnight you would be expected to step up early. What then would you do if you were no prepared? "

Alexi was older than she, by a reasonable few years, but he had never ventured outside of the confines of his own country, had never set foot on the hardened ground of another planet no experienced people from other cultures personally. The nature of Alexi's status as King Alexander's only son, had separated him from her fate. Indeed, had he been a second son in the succession instead of the first he would have been sent on to participate in the Great Exchange instead of she, but it was not so. Alexandria had been chosen by her uncle to take his son's place in the exchange because he could not afford to send his only succeeding heir as king out into the 'barbaric' world at the risk that anything should happen to him. And though, she could see the flaw behind Alexander's reasoning now that she had been out and seen the dexterity of the world first hand, she was glad in a way that her cousin could not go so she could have the opportunity in his stead.

So many things made more sense to her now than they had before her departure. After leaving the paradise that was Venus, she now understood that life was not a fairytale and that being 'privileged' really did mean nothing next to experience and initiative. She knew better now. As the prince continued to stare upon her with horror in his eyes, she knew she knew better what to expect of the world than he and she was proud of herself for it. Things did not always go according to plan and often they went horribly astray.

Briefly, the image of Anna bent over the bloodied grass of the Saturnarian marshlands, great hitching sobs shaking her small frame as she lay in the mud and wept, flashed before her mind's eye and everything inside her stilled. Yes, the world was not all a paradise.

"What demon has taken you over?" Alexi asked, leaning back against the cushioning blades once more. "Things like that do not happen here, not in this land. You've been away too long, princess. Relax and seize the day at hand, as it is. We only ever live if in the present so lay back and pretend you are in the Gardens of Delight with the sun overhead and the warming breeze at your feet."

Alexandria did not protest him this time. What was the point? He was older, his status was higher, and he would not, could not understand what she was saying to him. His experience did not prelude possibilities of such extreme content. Overhead, she heard an Ambrosian Eagle shriek as it circled the area where its prey was trapped on the ground, ready to swoop and deliver the killing blow at any given moment. No there was no way they would know, could know until it happened to them. Until the great Eagle fell out of the sky and the illustrious golden paradise they had built for themselves floundered, they would never understand, but could that happen even? Could anything bring the great Venian empire to its knees? With Alexander as king, Alexandria highly doubted it.

With a resigned sigh, the Venian princess fell back against the soft grasses and basked in the natural beauty of the day for what it was, at present, worth.

-----------

_**Year 577**_

_**Providence of Elucion, Uranus**_

It was easy to be bought and sold. The point of contention, the entire raison d'etre of the system was to break your spirit and Entarais was now a part of that. Segal had taken her as far as the docking stations at Alteran and there, he had sold her to a band of traders for a hefty price. Tied and bound by ropes, she walked behind the camel of the leader of the band with his three companions flanking her on horseback, two on either side of her and one bringing up the rear of their little group. It was a protective stance. It was a stupid man who wandered the deserts of Uranus alone without a swift steed and surer spear at his side. These were dangerous times. The young northern prince, Bastion, had only recently risen to the throne of his father and though he was married, his marriage had yet to prove fruitful. He had no heir in a land where having power was a precarious business and everyone was on edge because of it.

The hot and of the desert scorched her feet and they were beginning to effuse a mixture of pus and blood which was clotted up by little particles of sand. They had taken her shoes and had only left her with her rich garments, a soiled blue tunic and trousers which were naturally too hot for the environment. The arid heat of the Uranian backlands had dried her mouth and filled its edges and the corners of her eyes with sand from the blaring winds. She was thirsty, but she did not dare ask for a drink of water. When she had asked for a blanket the night before to protect her from the dropping temperatures, she received a cruel laugh and a swift kick in the stomach. She had lain there, in the frigid sand trying to hold back tears as the leader and his man sat around a warm fire and ate the roasted sweetbreads of an animal they had only just killed.

She was well now. Her fever had broken shortly after leaving Saturn and she had regained her strength on the journey to Uranus. The wound in her back had been tended to in Alteran and now all it did was dully itch beneath its bandages as a dull reminder of the life she had led before this hell had descended upon her. What was she now?

"You are property." The head man had told her when Segal had handed her over for a fifty pieces of gold. "You belong to Uranus now."

Every so often she stumbled and lost her footing and was dragged a little ways before she had regained the strength to stand and continue on again. The men laughed at her and made jokes at her frail composition and at how it appeared she had never worked a day in her life and that it was all about to change for her. She would be a pampered Neptunian brat no longer, they had told her. The people here would make a Uranian out of her, a real individual of worth and heartiness. Over the past few days, the men had made it a sport to tell her of how she would be stripped of everything that made her different. It would be forbidden of her to speak in her natural foreign tongue and she would learn the language of Uranus and be taught it by the servants of her master's house if she was lucky, if she was sold to a proper owner.

If not then she would have to learn it on her own accord. She would not be allowed to pray to the gods of her people for help, if they had any, nor practice any rituals sacred to them and if she defied any of these rules then she could run the risk of being beaten, branded, or even killed by her master in retribution. She would learn to accept Uranian ways and worship Uranian gods and think, move, and speak all like a standard Uranian. But genetically, she would never be able to escape what she was, the fact that she was indeed different, and so she would have to accept her new status as subhuman and subservient to the household she was to serve. She was young yet, though, they told her and it was easier for a puppy to take to new tricks than an old dog. In her mind though, she must begin thinking of herself as a Uranian, if she was to survive, she would have to completely forget the life she had led before. It did not matter and worse, everything that she was, had never been, she was a blank slate to write upon and be written upon. She was theirs and she was afraid.

The man holding the rope that bound her hands gave a supreme yank and she fell forward again, and she rose quicker this time with a mouthful of sand and none of her dignity or self respect left intact as they laughed at her.

Their destination was the city of Bunhen, the slave city they called it for it was where all undesirables were brought to be exposed of their individuality and were made 'others', outcasts where were less than human, and certainly less than Uranian with no status and no worth. It was there where she would be sold and bought, hopefully by a rich man with a household. Child slaves were popular. When an area or people were conquered, the prisoners were separated into groups to be siphoned off by age, gender, ability, importance. The old people were taken as diplomatic slaves, people who could make themselves useful inside a household. The young able-bodied men were sold into means of labor where their vitality and strength could be worked out of them and the young women were either used as breeders for lord's subservient population or for the lord himself.

The children were often used in households and were popular because they did not yet have developed talents and everything they had been taught before could easily be reversed and they could learn to be useful. And in the case that any infants were taken, which were rare as the spoils of war dictated killing those who could grow up to supplant you, a young couple might adopt them and raise them as their own with no knowledge of their heritage or culture, but Entarais was too old to be thought of in that respect. She was old enough to know that she was different, that she was an outsider now on the inside and that was powerful and dangerous information in the current situation she found herself in. Her greatest sin was that she was not yet old enough to realize this, how an outsider on the inside had the power to change things, but no one else yet had figured this out either so it is fair to say that Entarais was right where she should be at that age, thought wise.

In three days time, they had waded through the middle of the Scavian Desert with the city of Bunhen only hours away. In that short time, some physical changes had taken place in the Neptunian. The oozing sores on the bottom of her feet had scabbed over with scar tissue and the burned skin there had become tough and numb to the eternal heat she had grown used to treading. Her lightly tanned complexion had taken on a headily darker sheen with an almost constant glow of moist sweat that never dried covering every edifice. The childlike curiosity which had always been so alive and rich in her gaze towards whatever she approached had faded and dulled and now her eyes were simply blue. Were it not for her affluent attire, no onlooker would have taken her for an niece to one of the most powerful emperors in the Outer kingdoms.

It was only the dark patch of hair upon her head which identified her as an outsider as all natural born Uranians were blessed with fair hair, the darkest of all shades which resembled sand. In any and all other features deference lay therein and was easily spotted out and ostracized by any and all common natural Uranians born. It was their way, the way parents taught their children, the way tutors taught their children. The Uranian way was the best way, Uranian blood was the only pure blood, and any and all other peoples were inferior by birthright, the gods had divined it, the Nine had designed it. That was how things were and in Entarais' naïve and defeated mental state, there was no point in challenging any of it.

The sun went down for the night and they stopped to make camp. The four men made a fire and drew some water from a goat skin for themselves and their animals. Entarais had learned on her first night that begging got her nothing but a stern look of disapproval and a smack to the face which stung on her cheek long into the night and so she had adapted, learned what to do to survive. She would kneel below the drinking animal and cup her hands beneath the bowl it drank out of, catching the overflow and drinking it greedily. When it came to your own survival, nothing could be left up to chance. As a small reward for no longer begging, she was allotted a small piece of sun dried meat along with the piece of hard flatbread which consisted the only meal she was allowed for the day and, as she had done with the water, she took all of this in covetously. Nothing was left to chance when you were on your own. It was a lesson quick learnt. Entarais no longer pondered who she was becoming or who she had been, it was just easier not to think about it.

As the four men gathered around the fire and ate and talked loudly in the foreign tongue Entarais was still struggling to become fluent in, Entarais curled up in the customary ball she had become accustomed to sleeping in with her arms tucked close to her chest protected by her knees. Most of the time the men talked to her using the universal tongue that the moon king had tried to implement, but when they talked among themselves and did not want her to understand, they broke into traditional Uranian. Entarais felt like a fly on the back of a donkey's leg. All of the worldly social charms she had been brought up with meant nothing in this ruthless land where status and station was not based upon mere ability but upon birthright and most importantly, gender. She did not understand much of the Uranian culture yet and had never before traveled to the planet, but what she had seen upon her first day arriving in the north had convinced her that neither outsiders nor girls were held in great esteem by the society at hand.

All that she was, they had taken from her. The handmade blue garments she was wearing had lost their previous luster and were marred by dust and dulling filth. The aquamarine pendant, which had been an heirloom of her family, had been ripped off of her neck and was probably on sale in some Venian controlled trade market in the outer rim for a hefty price. She had not seen her family in years and as the days passed and everything she had been before became more and more worthless, she thought of them less as the days went by.

The same protocol went for her friends. Of her schoolmates, she thought little. It was not that she did not care for them, but in being thrown into this harsh setting, her mind had taken all things not immediate to her own survival and had pushed them to the back of her consciousness. It made her continued existence possible and at the moment, she was continually reminded just how much that mattered. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes in the frigid night. Would she dare let them fall? What was she mourning for? Everything she had lost? What good would it do her now? What good did dead things serve once they were gone?

The morning came on quickly as it always did and before the sun had even risen above the horizon, she was kicked awake and dragged to her feet. They were up and on the trail in mere minutes. Entarais did not raise her head from the bent position she had adopted for it, eyes closed, chin pointed downward towards the sand. What was the point of looking? Sand always looked the same, there was no variation and this land held no beauty for her to care about. She stumbled forward as the rope pulling her was given a sharp yank as often was done to keep her on her toes, but this time when she did not look up after she had regained her footing, the horseman behind her smacked her on the back with his riding stick. When she looked back at him, her reprimand was another painful swat and then when her gaze was properly directed away from him, only then did the head man riding at the front of the procession speak.

"Bunhen." His throaty voice ground out, as though he was not used to speaking, "This place will either be your salvation or your damnation, child, depending on your worth. Present yourself well for your life will depend upon it from this moment on."

As he finished speaking, Entarais looked up and her eyes widened at the sight of the giant sandstone walls and grand gates with ivory statues of the gods carved into either side of the path through the entranceway which towered above the traveler seeming to reach to the heavens. This was truly one of the North's most prosperous cities. The rough sand beneath gave way to roads of polished limestone and walls refined by time with engravings in an alphabet Entarais could not read scrawled vertically on every stone and also on the colored bases and tops of the square pillars. There were large carved statues of the Uranian gods and also of generals and emperors who had gone before one either side of the road, lining the limestone path so that no one who entered through the gates could remain undaunted by the proud display of Uranian heritage looming high above them. The young Neptunian could not help but stare at her surroundings of this brave new world in constant awe. She had not seen architecture so square and sturdy before in her life and the only thing of equal merit she could compare it to were the fluid columns and domed palaces of her own watery homeland, but even then, there was hardly a parallel. Neptune may be just as great and wondrous an empire, but it was not so near as imposing nor as proud as the one the Uranians had erected around themselves.

Entarais gulped loudly as visibly started when she passed under the ominous statue of Sarpedon Tarpiea, Uranus' last and most tyrannical emperor.

His eyes though carved an empty seemed to be staring down distinctly upon her with an air of ethnocentric distaste. She was in the distinct majority here and she knew it. With every person who passed them along the road, from the dusty traders pulling their newly emptied caravans along or the guards on horseback patrolling up and down the sides, she looked them in the eye and immediately felt the air of racial superiority they radiated. It was in that moment that she knew she was nothing here, could be nothing here. They would attempt to take away everything that she was, her heritage, her culture, her language, her identity as a unique individual and make her as near a creature to them as they dared.

As she was yanked along by her captors, she looked down at her hands, unfold them before her eyes so she could see the dust which had gathered in the lines and drying cuts of her palms. How could they? How could one person rob another of whom and what they were? Was it truly possible? How could the unique set of experience who made you, you be erased so you would have to start all over again? No, it was not possible. Only the gods had that sort of power over another person. Who you are is who you are and nothing or no one can take that away from you. Entarais was certain. _She_ would continue to exist, she would have to.

Entarais stumbled into an awkward sidestep as she was yanked unceremoniously sideways off of the main road and skirting onto the dirt sidelines where a horseman had to pull up short before he ran her over. Before she could even move, the mounted spearman reined up and spit on her.

"Stupid rabble!" He seethed down at her, her eyes nervously watching his hand readjust its grip on the spear. "Move!"

And without waiting for her movement, he spurred his horse forward and it knocked her in the shoulder, almost causing her to fall as she stumbled sideways again. Even as she wiped the spit from her cheek, she thought that not being run over outright was the most generous courtesy she had received in her visit to the dusty planet so far.

The head man who had dragged her to the side of the road had pulled his horse off to the side as well and dismounted along with all of her captors. Still holding the rope tied to her, he pulled her back up to her feet and Entarais came along grudgingly.

"Come! The slave market is not far from here. That is where we will see just how much you are worth, my little Neptunian."

The slave market was basically a triad of rectangular tents which were open on all sides and only really kept the merciless rays of the Uranian sun off of the backs of those who came to purchase the slaves at auction. There were various sections of people from all different planets, from all different races and walks of life. They were separated into groups of men, women, and children which gave the general spectator or citizen shopper the guidelines for division of labor.

The head man pulled Entarais along to the child's section and instead of putting Entarais with the girls, he tied her to the rope at the end of the line of boys. When she looked over at him in confusion, he raised his hand as if to slap her should she have a mind to tell anyone the truth about her and she kept quiet.

There was an auction block at the center of the tents which was not covered by a tarp. Every few minutes, a slave or a pair of them were led upon the block and presented to the waiting crowd of Uranians who jeered in obvious appraisal or dejection of the stock offered to them.

Entarais cringed as she heard the crowd cheer as blond haired child, possibly a Venian, was sold as a house slave to a rich warrior's wife. Next a tall burly man with long belt-like scars across his back was brought to the block and the crowd of onlookers and prospective buyers cheered their loudest yet.

One of the other men of the party who had brought Entarais, nudged her in the ribs with his elbow.

"Look sharp!" His voice came as a harsh and smelly whisper in her ear. "They've got a buyer for you."

Entarais opened her eyes wide in disbelief as she noticed the head man, who had disappeared for a short time come back with a tall armored man. His hair was sandy blond like that of all of the Uranians of the north and his frame was thickly muscled and bulky beneath his boxy bronze armor. The matching bronze helmet tucked under his arm war ornamentally carved and had a spouting crest of horse hair on the top that had been dyed a dark shade of blue. His face, in addition to being covered in a thin sheen of sweat due to the ever constant Uranian heat, also sported a spiky forest of

lackadaisically managed stubble. Peaking out from this ensemble were two almond shaped light blue-green eyes.

Another of the slave masters, noticing the positioning of the navy blue cloak about the man's shoulders and the styling of his armor was able to recognize him.

"It's Adeodatus, King Bastion's most respected general."

Entarais stared back at the man with an uncalculated sense of awe mixed with the overwhelming feeling of true fear.

The head man was speaking now, "I have one you might like, sir. He's over here."

Entarais swallowed as the imposing man was led to stand directly in front of her, scrutinizing her.

He nodded a few times appraisingly, noticing the supple olive hue of her skin and also her lanky tall build which suggested long hours spent out running in the sun. Then he reached out both hands, using one to lift her chin and another to open her mouth to look at her teeth.

Finally, after letting go of her mouth the man stepped back and turned to the head man who was rubbing his hands together nervously.

"Hm, good teeth. He'll do." Adeodatus asked eying the shorter man suspiciously. "How much do you want for him?"

"100 pieces."

"Hm…that's a little steep, but his clothes are well made. Do you know what sort of family he came from before being captured?"

"Yes, sir. The man who passed him over to me at Alteran told me he was found with on the battlefield beside the Prince of Cassis and he believed him to be of that noble house." The head man lied with a smile.

Adeodatus grunted, unimpressed. The house of Cassis was a Neptunian one and nothing of their twin planet was held in high esteem on Uranus, least of all members of their democratic nobility.

"What is his age?" The general asked pacing a few short steps away.

"11." The head man lied again.

Adeodatus nodded contemplatively, but was not entirely convinced enough to make the sale yet. "100 pieces still seems to be a little much compared with his history."

The head man paled and quickly moved in to try and brace the rocky foundation of the deal. "90 pieces, then, but no less sir, I have a family in the Imperial City to feed."

"Done." Adeodatus said and the two clasped hands to finalize the deal. "See my man, Persis, he will see that you get paid, then have him finished and brought to my house by sun down."

The head man bowed lowly and crossed his right arm over his chest respectfully in the Uranian fashion as the general mounted a black horse that his servant, Persis, had walked over behind him as he was talking. Only glancing back to give Entarais a second look, he rode off in the direction leading further into the city and farther away from the slave market.

It was all over. The Neptunian light had gone out to be replaced by the shadow of a Uranian one. And just like that, Entarais of Neptune belonged to Uranus now.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

**The Eagle**

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

-Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)-

_To Be Continued…._


End file.
